JERUSALEM – December 14, 2005 – MIFTAH condemns yesterday’s attacks by masked gunmen on four electoral offices in the West Bank and Gaza, which have endangered the fragile democratic process in Palestine and impinged unjustly on the rights of the Palestinian people. The attacks regrettably prompted the Central Election Commission to suspend its operations yesterday, a day before the last day of the candidate registration period for the national legislative elections scheduled for January 25th, 2006.

News reports suggest that the violence stems from internal disputes within Fatah, and that the armed men were apparently disgruntled Fatah members (according to some news reports, they were affiliated to the armed Al-Aqsa Brigades) who attacked the electoral booths to protest the inclusion of “old-guarders” on the Fatah list. While MIFTAH believes in transparency and accountability, which are essential requirements for a functioning democracy, internal disputes within any faction must not jeopardize the democratic process and disrupt the rule of law in Palestine.

MIFTAH therefore strongly urges the CEC to re-open its offices to allow the candidate registration process to continue as scheduled, and further urges the Palestinian National Authority to protect all CEC offices and staff and to take the necessary steps to ensure that the democratic process in Palestine continues smoothly and on schedule. Lastly, MIFTAH urges that the international community lends its support to the democratic process in Palestine, and does what it can to ensure that this process is not further disrupted by internal or external actors.

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, MIFTAH, is a non-governmental, non-partisan Jerusalem-based institution dedicated to fostering democracy and good governance within Palestinian society through promoting public accountability, transparency, the free flow of information and ideas and the challenging of stereotyping at home and abroad.