Thursday December 23, 2004

I've Been Thinking:

Today the Palestinians successfully held local elections in 26 municipalities.
This should be seen as a prelude to their upcoming elections.

The elections for the 826 council seats in the 26 cities, towns and villages were surprisingly, remarkably, uneventful. This bodes well for the elections scheduled in two and a half weeks, on January 9, 2005.

There are some pitfalls, however, that we must consider.
Palestinian election law requires women to be represented.
Muslim culture does not.

In the course of the election there was great pressure brought on many of the female candidates to withdraw their candidacy. In many towns female candidates were prevented from posting placards and signs with their pictures. Pressure on many of the candidates came even from their own family members.

Women are over 50% of the Palestinian population.
We will see what happens on January 9.