January 19, 2010-Ramallah

Proceedings of Meeting

The CEC’s Chairman, Dr Hanna Nassir, opened the session by welcoming attending commissioners and pointing out that local elections might be called in the upcoming weeks based on meetings with the Minister of Local Governance on this regard. Attendance discussed CEC’s preparedness to hold elections upon the issue of a presidential decree and the legal timeframe needed to conduct voter registration, given the fact that the registry wasn’t updated for more than three years. It was agreed to request the concerned bodies to grant the CEC more time to update the voter registry.

 March 16, 2010-Ramallah

Proceedings of Meeting

 The CEC’s Chairman opened the session by welcoming attending commissioners. The meeting tackled the following:

• Voter registry update: the CEO briefed attendance of the progress of the voter registration drive where 773 centers were opened and 130 mobile registration teams were deployed and 158000 voters were registered.
• Meeting with the Minister of Local Governance: The Chairman discussed the results of the meeting with the Minister of Local Governance on Sunday, 14th March, 2010 where the minister submitted a proposal to merge some localities. On its turn, the CEC stressed its position with regards to the change of regulations and laws concerning the merge or affiliation of localities, at this sensitive period. Through the meeting as well as official letters, the CEC stressed that any changes following the issue of a Cabinet’s decision will negatively affect the electoral process and will be viewed from a political perspective rather than administrative reasons.

 June 14, 2010-Ramallah

Proceedings of Meeting

 The CEC’s Chairman opened the session by welcoming attending commissioners. The meeting tackled the following:

• Postponement of Local Elections: The CEC’s Chairman indicated that the Cabinet’s decision to postpone local elections was taken without referring to the CEC. The CEC clarified its position through a statement published on its webpage.
• Evaluation of CEC’s performance: The CEC evaluated the performance of its staff in the last period. Mr. Chairman praised the high performance level CEC’s technical staff who proved CEC’s readiness to respond to any electoral event.

June 27, 2010-Ramallah

Proceedings of Meeting

 The CEC’s Chairman opened the session by welcoming attending commissioners. The meeting tackled the following:

• The postponement of Local Elections: The CEC’s Chairman referred to the Cabinet’s decision to postpone/ cancel local elections clarifying that the decision can be viewed as a cancellation of elections rather than postponement.
• Nomination applications: The CEC decided to keep nomination applications since they are not subject to publishing.
• Insurance fees: It was decided to return insurance fees to nominated political parties as per CEC’s regulations on this regard.
• Termination of employment contracts for 90 district officers and Headquarters: It was decided that the contracts of temporary staff at the district offices and headquarters ending 31st July and 31st August will not be renewed.