Following the Palestinian Authority's (PA) announcement that local elections will take place in the West Bank and Gaza on July 17, 2010, Aswatona in partnership with IFES and the Central Elections Committee (CEC), held an initial workshop for journalists to better understand the stages of the local elections process. Thirty-six journalists and mangers of television and radio stations, news agencies and print media attended the one day workshop held at the Grand Park Hotel in Ramallah on February 25, 2010.
Three guest speakers from the CEC presented the local elections calendar, the new voting districts, and location of the election centers. They reiterated the importance of local media coverage of the elections, from day one until the exit polling on Election Day.
The majority of time was spent on the pressing topic of voter registration. This first step in the election process, which will include 335 local councils, 310 in the West Bank and 25 in Gaza, will be the renewal of the voter registration, scheduled to begin on March 6, 2010. The CEC stated that, since the defacto Hamas government declared that it will not permit elections to take place in Gaza, it is possible that elections will only take place in the West Bank. Local Council Elections could take place later in Gaza when the political circumstances are more favorable.
The workshop participants raised key issues during the discussions. Salim Swedan, manager of Nablus TV, posed the question, “if the TV station hosts a candidate, and then the candidate begins an attack on other candidates or officials or violates the code of ethics, which is responsible, the station or the candidate, especially if the program is live?” The CEC responded that both the TV and the candidate would be responsible, but the station could explain for instance before the police or the court, that the transmission was live. George Kanawati, of Radio Bethlehem 2000, asked about the role of the local stations in the elections campaign. The CEC replied that the official Palestine radio and TV will only allow one minute of air time for each candidate, so the local stations will not be restricted in terms of time allocated for each of the candidates. The CEC also pledged to provide all contact information for the journalists to cover the elections process and will issue credentials for local journalists as well other media representatives.
Journalists requested more workshops to better understand the election process. Aswatona, together with IFES, will begin to implement a series of such workshops to better involve the local media in this process. This is just the beginning on the road to elections.