As part of its preparations to update the voter registry in Gaza, a delegation from the CEC comprised of CEC Chairman, Hanna Nasir, Secretary General, Rami al-Hamdullah, Commissioners Khawla shakhshir, Ishaq Mohamna, Mazin Seisalem, Yousef Awadallah, Yasir Harb and CEO Hisham Kuhail visited Gaza last Monday, 28th May. The delegation met with Mr. Ismail Haniyeh to discuss the purpose of registry update and the technical requirements. The meeting which was also attended by a number of officials resulted in allowing the Commission to update the voter registry in Gaza as it has not been updated since 2007.
It should be indicated that Commissioners Ahmad al-Khalidi and Shukri Nashashibi were denied access to Gaza by the Israeli authorities.
The delegation also held several meetings with representatives of political factions, Civil Society organizations (CSOs) and the Consortium of Independent Palestinians (CIP) to update them with latest developments on this regard. On their part representatives expressed their continued support to the role and work of the Commission.
On 29th May, the delegation met with the Minister of Education in the Gaza, Mr. Osama Al-Mzaini, who expressed the Ministry’s willingness to cooperate with the Commission in providing registration centers/schools and staff to facilitate the registration process.
The delegation returned back to Ramallah yesterday after completion of its mission. A technical team from the CEC will head to Gaza on 2nd June to provide the technical and logistical support to CEC’s Staff there.
As of that date, registration preparations will last for six weeks during which the CEC will conduct voter education campaigns, train and recruit registration staff who will carry out field campaigns to register voters during the fifth and six weeks. Citizens will be encouraged to register or update their personal information at registration centers which will be opened for this purpose.
The CEC would like to seize this opportunity to thank all political factions, CSOs, independent citizens and the Palestinian people as a whole for their support to CEC’s work to enable it carry out its mandate in an objective and transparent manner as required by the elections law and the high interest of the Palestinian people.