Palestinian political parties and factions signed today the Code of Conduct for the upcoming Local Council Elections scheduled 8 October 2016, under the supervision of the CEC.
The approved Code reaffirms the articles of the Local Elections Law with regards to respect of freedoms and elections results. It stipulates full adherence to the provisions of the elections law, CEC’s decisions and respect of the role of local and international observers while supporting their election observation work.
The Code also calls for refraining from any form of libel, defamation, insult, igniting or exploiting religious, sectarian, tribal, familial or racist sentiments among citizens. Candidates are bound to refrain from subjecting others’ election campaigns to physical acts such as sabotaging, tearing or sticking pictures and slogans over others’ pictures and slogans.
The parties are also bound to refrain from practicing any form of pressure, intimidation, treachery, accusations of religious disbelief or violence against any list or candidate, and not to carry any arms or use them during public meetings, marches and other election activities.
Political parties are also obliged not to use the official slogans of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the State of Palestine or other similar slogans during meetings, advertisements, electoral statements or in any other writings, drawings and pictures that are used in election campaigning. They should also refrain from obtaining electoral campaigning funding from any foreign, external or non-Palestinian sources whether directly or indirectly, as well as any funds from the State treasury to cover their campaigning expenditure.