Election Commission: This is how Jerusalemites will vote in the coming elections

Jerusalem24 – The Executive Director of the Central Elections Committee, Hisham Kahil, said that there is no Israeli response until this moment to the Palestinian leadership’s request to hold elections in the city of Jerusalem, noting that the Palestinian factions in Cairo stressed the need to hold them in the occupied capital, as happened in the previous elections, and therefore all efforts are focused on this.

Kahil added, in his interview with Ma’an TV  that because of the Israeli ban, the committee does not open centers for it in Jerusalem, and we consider every Jerusalemite registered either for the purpose of election or candidacy, and thus his name is listed in the candidacy lists.
He continued: “The committee registers Jerusalemites who vote in six postal centers in the city, but also the rest of Jerusalemites can go to 15 centers in the vicinity of the city to register and vote on the same day, and this does not affect the conduct of the electoral process.”

On the election committee’s participation in the recent Cairo dialogue, Kahil said during his interview: “We participated at the request of the Palestinian factions, and we presented  all the issues that need to be addressed and agreed to ensure the smooth running of the electoral process. Indeed, we got clear answers, especially with regard to the issue of security. ”

Regarding the committee’s start of receiving applications for candidacy, the Executive Director of the Election Commission stated that yesterday the committee received applications for candidacy from three lists, two lists from Gaza and a list from the West Bank, and it seems that these lists, their necessary requests for submission, are acceptable, meaning that they contain the main requirements and are being examined to ensure their compliance. The conditions, whether they are legal requirements for the list or for the list candidates. He explained that if any defect is discovered in the list, the delegate will be notified to fix the defect within the 12-day period, which is the period for submitting candidacy applications, and at the same time, if any list wants to withdraw its candidacy, it has the right to do so until 4/29-2021.

As for the opening of accounts for the candidate lists in banks, Kahil stated that the committee is making all the necessary facilities in order to facilitate the registration of citizens wishing to nominate themselves for the elections, and yesterday we met with the Monetary Authority and reached a solution for the institution to address the banks and hope that it will respond to instructions of The Monetary Authority regarding this issue and the condition of resignation was set for public employees wishing to run. We have contacted the Prime Minister to facilitate the procedures related to resignation, we listen to all the matters that concern the candidates, and we try through our relations with the institutions to facilitate that.