As an accredited local monitoring organization, PCHR has sent two letters to the Palestinian Central Election Commission (CEC) relating to the stages of the presidential election, which will be held on 9 January 2005 .

In the first letter, PCHR called for an explanation of the reasons for the non-establishment of a district election commission in accordance with article 27 of the Law 13 of 1995 Relating to Elections, which prescribes the establishment of such commissions and appointment their members in each electoral constituency. Article 28 of the Law specifies the powers and competences of these commissions in conducting, organizing and monitoring all electoral operations taken place within the respective districts, and implementing the norms and instructions issued by CEC.

The other letter reminded the CEC of the two previous letters PCHR previously sent to the CEC, but, to date, have received no response. One of these letters was sent on 22 November 2004 . In the letter PCHR inquired about the reasons why the CEC did not publish the preliminary election register on 20 November 2004 , according to a presidential decree issued on 21 June 2004 , to allow rejections. The other letter was sent on 15 December 2004 , in which PCHR inquired about:

1. The procedures which the CEC followed to implement article 1 of Law 1 of 2004, amending some provisions of Law 13 of 1995 Relating to Elections to ensure the integrity of the final election register following the accreditation of the record of civil affairs.
2. The date of publishing the final election register, according to articles 19 and 20 of Law 13 of 1995 Relating to Elections.

In light of the above, PCHR calls for:

1. Establishing district election commissions according to articles 27 and 28 of Law 13 of 1995 Relating to Elections.
2. Publishing the final election register soon as the presidential election will be held on 9 January 2004 .