The Higher Preparatory Committee for National Council Elections Discusses the Election System and Party Law

SadaNews - The Higher Preparatory Committee for the Palestinian National Council elections held its twelfth meeting today, Thursday, chaired by Rouhi Fattouh, at the Palestinian National Council headquarters in Ramallah.

The agenda included the approval of the minutes from the previous session, reviewing the reports of the subcommittees, as well as discussing the election system in a general reading and listening to committee members' interventions on several issues related to the electoral process.

According to the insights and interventions of the committee members, the aim of this discussion was to develop a modern and flexible electoral system that ensures the participation of our people, both inside and outside Palestine, in the democratic process, achieving fair representation according to population density, which contributes to enhancing their unity in various places of their presence and renewing the national and representative legitimacy of Palestinian national action institutions.

In this context, the participants focused during the general reading of the election system on the percentage of women's representation, considering it a key entry point to ensure broader Palestinian women's participation in decision-making processes at various levels of the Palestinian political system.

The meeting also discussed the matter of the electoral threshold in the National Council elections and the necessity of determining it to ensure the enhancement of legislative and electoral harmony, support for the integrity and inclusiveness of the democratic process, contribute to expanding the base of participation, and increasing parliamentary representation in a more just and diverse manner.

The committee members' discussions addressed the reference foundations for the electoral process, which were based on the basic system of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the resolutions of the National and Central Councils related to it, in addition to the approved electoral laws and regulations.

Moreover, the participants discussed the committee's vision for the mechanism of dividing the external electoral constituencies, which include Arab, European, American, Asian, and African countries, and the mechanism for determining the number of seats allocated to each constituency based on population density and the size of Palestinian communities.

The committee members decided to continue discussing the proposals and amendments they will submit, with the first reading of the election system to be discussed in the next meeting.

Regarding the proposed Party Law, the committee members decided to start studying the draft law submitted by the legal subcommittee and to make the necessary amendments to prepare it for public discussion before the Higher Preparatory Committee for the National Council elections and its approval in accordance with the formal procedures, then referring it to the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization for review and approval according to the adopted procedures, in preparation for submitting it to the president for issuance.