THREAD ON DEMOCRACY IN WB & GAZA.

1/5 Discussions of elections within the PA is a favourite topic of international diplomats & journalists in Palestine. Often elections are proposed as the magical antidote to the increasing authoritarianism. But elections are not everything...

2/5 Elections are a technical practice that MAY BE a product of a meaningful democratic process, but they may ALSO take place when there is an absence of democracy. We have seen many times elections being used to prop up the governing regime & gain international legitimacy.

3/5 Elections must therefore be part of a larger package in which democratic accountability exists across society & where political plurality is accepted & encouraged. Yet the space for democratic and political practice in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been shrinking.

4/5 Fatah’s control in the West Bank (& Hamas’s parallel control in Gaza), as well as the consolidation of power by Abbas & his allies have led to the entrenchment of a 1 party system. The int community’s criminalization of all other political parties has also contributed to this

5/5 It is in within this context of limited democratic & political space that we must consider elections in the WB & Gaza. The lack of political competition & plurality means that elections would not reflect true democratic practice rather they would reinforce the ruling regime.