Background Information the West Bank Elections

The Consulate General of Israel has released the following information background on the West Bank elections to be held tomorrow:

On April 12, municipal elections will be held in Judaea and Samaria–the area also known as the West Bank. Most of the political and social strength of the area, as well as the most significant public and economic activities, are concentrated within its 24 municipalities. For this reason, considerable importance is being attributed to the elections being held in these 24 municipalities, for the second time since 1967. (The first elections were held in the municipalities of Samaria on March 28, 1972, and of Judaea on May 2, 1972.)

The elections will be held in accordance with the Jordanian Municipality Law No. 29, of 1955, which determines the period of office for a Municipal Council as four years, with the number of council members (between seven and twelve) to be determined by the Jordanian Ministry of the Interior. In effect, during Jordanian rule, a criterion had been determined which linked the number of council members to the size of the local population.

EXPANSION OF ELECTORATE

Under Jordanian law, the right to vote is limited to males, 21 and over, who have been residents of the municipality in which the elections are being held for at least one full year prior to the elections and who have paid at least one dinar in local taxes (real estate taxes, education taxes, license fees for industry and commerce). Since this area has come under Israeli administration, there has been a notable democratization of the process, due in part to improved economic conditions and in part to Israel’s decision to extend the voting right to women.

The rise in the standards of living in Judaea and Samaria during the last few years, as evidenced by the increase of municipal income from taxes and by the imposition of new taxes, particularly the annual tax for sanitation services, has led to an increase in the number of voters and has made possible the participation of groups and strata of people who were previously denied a say in deciding who would be their elected officials.

Whereas in 1972 there were 32,000 voters, there will be 88,000 in 1976, of whom about 36% will be women. In three Moslem towns, there will be more women voters than men. The elections are personal, and the ballot is secret. The mayor himself is not chosen by the municipal council, but is appointed by the Council of Ministers, on the recommendation of the Minister of the Interior. Jordanian law empowers the authorities to appoint two additional members to a municipal council and even to appoint one of them mayor.

ISRAELI INTERVENTION AT A MINIMUM

The Israeli authorities have never taken advantage of this right, granted them by the law, to appoint additional members to the councils or to select mayors. In effect, the government has accepted the recommendations of the councils themselves with regard to the designation of mayors. It has, of its own free will minimized its involvement in matters of local rule and has increased the measure of autonomy and self-representation.

The organizing of elections, both in 1972 and this year–from the preparation of voters’ lists to the providing of police protection at the polls–was and will be carried out by the local residents themselves. (The Israel Ministry of the Interior provides one Israeli expert to advise on organizational matters.) Precise arrangements for the review and supervision of the elections ensure that they are conducted in an honest manner.

The 1972 elections were held in strict conformance to Jordanian law. In preparation for the 1976 elections, however, a number of regulations restricting the right to vote, and to be elected, to males only were rescinded by Edict No. 627, dated Dec. 28, 1975, issued by the Governor of Judaea and Samaria, which dropped the words of “male gender” from the Jordanian law. Since 1973, a trend to broaden the voting base and to grant suffrage to women can be discerned in Jordan itself.

Therefore, the new regulations introduced this year do not contradict Jordanian legislation. The fact that there has been a large registration of women to vote is a clear indication of the positive response of the population to this new approach:

LESSONS OF THE 1972 ELECTIONS

The experience of the 1972 elections may be recalled to gain a better understanding of the attitudes of the residents of the Israel-administered areas.

To begin with, a goodly measure of political and electoral maturity was exhibited by the residents, as evidenced by the large number of candidates who ran for office, by the high percentage of voter participation (83.9% in Samaria and 87.8% in Judaea, as compared with 75% under Jordanian rule), by the orderly conduct of the election campaigns and by a high level of organization–all of which resulted in the election of balanced councils in which both conservative and liberal elements were represented. Immediately after the 1972 elections, the Jordanian government recognized the newly-elected councils and their mayors.

Moreover, despite extensive propaganda efforts and threats, the PLO did not succeed in its efforts to intimidate the residents and to cause a breakdown of the electoral process. This failure exposed the weakness of the terrorists in the Israel-administered areas and the clear preference of the inhabitants of these areas for the democratic process over the perpetual terrorism propounded by the PLO, and for an elected rather than an imposed leadership….

There are also other indications that the population appreciates this new freedom of speech, freedom of movement and freedom of social, religious and cultural expression. One such indication is the flow of hundreds of thousands of Arabs coming to visit Israel each year from across the cease-fire lines–an unprecedented phenomenon in this area. Again, the economic progress that has been registered in the Israel-administered areas (an average annual growth of 10% in GNP), which is manifest everywhere, is a more powerful fact of life than all the propaganda of the PLO.

Economic and social progress, massive tourism, freedom of movement and press and democratic elections can exist only in a liberal atmosphere. and with general acceptance of the principle of co-existence.