The CEC announces the commencement of nomination for the upcoming Local Elections

In a press conference held in Ramallah today, the CEC Chairman Dr. Hanna Nasir, announced the commencement of the legal period of elections nomination as of today until August 25th according to Local Council Elections Law No 10 of 2005 and its amendments. Dr. Nasir stated that nomination applications of electoral lists are to be submitted to CEC’s district offices across the 16 districts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. According to elections law, nomination for local elections is through electoral lists only. Political parties, coalitions and groups are entitled to form electoral lists for candidacy to local councils elections. Electoral lists may register and nominate their candidates through special application forms which may be obtained in person from CEC’s headquarters in Al-Bireh, the Regional Office in Gaza or any of the CEC’s district offices or online through CEC’s webpage: www.elections.ps. Dr. Nasir also announced the publishing of the final voters’ registry based on which the upcoming Local Council Elections will be held. Dr. Nasir said that the total number of registered voters has reached 1,957,203 (1,110,697 in the WB and 846,505 in the GS). Copies of the registry have been handed over to political parties. In a later stage, copies of each local authority registry will be handed over to each electoral list nominated in that locality. The complete nomination applications and enclosures are to be submitted by the representative of the electoral list to the district office to which the list wishes to be nominated for the membership of its local council. The candidate of an electoral list should meet the following requirements: - Be 25 years or above on elections day. - Be registered in the final voters’ list of the locality he/she is nominated for the membership of its council. - Not be convicted with a felony against honor or a crime. -Not be an employee of the Ministry of Local Government or any or the security forces or the local authority or an advocate of the local authority. He/she should not be a president or a member of the local authority (unless resigned). -Be a resident within the local authority for no less than one year. -Not be nominated in more than one local authority or electoral list. According to law and elections procedures, the registration of a list will be refused in case the list or any of its candidates either do not meet the legal requirements stated above or provide incorrect information in the nomination application or enclosures. The CEC will be publishing the preliminary list of candidate lists on 29 August 2016 for three days at the local district offices and the premises of the local councils to enable the lists to verify their data and citizens to review lists and their candidates and exercise their right in objecting to the nomination of a list or a candidate. The final candidate lists will be published on 24 September 2016 which coincides with the first day of election campaigning according to the elections timeline