Local Councils' Electoral reform in Palestine: Challenges, Gaps and Scenarios

The endeavour to develop the legal framework governing electoral processes is necessary for electoral operations to meet the aspirations of the concerned parties, most notably the voters. To achieve this, the reform process must be guided by key objectives, including enhancing the electoral rights of citizens and institutionalizing guiding principles such as neutrality, inclusivity, transparency, integrity, accuracy and making the electoral process smoother and more efficient. However, in practice, the reform process may turn into opportunistic changes—which decision makers may utilize to strengthen their chances of accessing power, thereby leading to unintended consequences. Therefore, to mitigate these risks, it is advisable for neutral parties to propose electoral reforms based on objective and technical assessments aimed at achieving the aforementioned goals. In the context of promoting this type of approach, International IDEA has supported several electoral reform initiatives, the most important of which was an initiative led by the Central Electoral Commission-Palestine (CEC-Palestine). This initiative involved assessing the regulatory framework for local council elections, which entailed a comprehensive analysis of all aspects related to local elections and offering proposals for electoral reform. This report was presented in early August 2023 to various stakeholders involved in the electoral process in Palestine, with the hope of continuing the discussion on electoral issues requiring reform. However, this process came to a halt after 7 October 2023.