Palestinians: We Want Democratic Elections, Too
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As Israelis prepare to head to the ballot boxes on March 17, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are wondering whether they, too, will ever have the privilege of holding their own free and democratic elections.
In the past few weeks, Palestinians have launched a campaign to demand free and democratic elections. But the campaign seems thus far to have fallen on deaf ears.
All that is left for Palestinians to do is sit and watch with envy as voters in Israel practice their right to elect new representatives.
The average age of the PLO leadership is 75. The same faces have been in control of Hamas for the past two decades.
The last time the Palestinians went to the ballot boxes was in January 2006, when they voted for a new parliament, the Palestinian Legislative Council. The vote resulted in a victory for the Hamas-affiliated Change and Reform list.
Exactly one year earlier, the Palestinians had a presidential election, which brought Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas to power.
The next parliamentary elections were supposed to be held in 2010, while the presidential vote was scheduled to take place in 2009.
But the Palestinians have since failed to hold new parliamentary and presidential elections because of the dispute between Fatah and Hamas, which reached its peak with Hamas's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007.
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5380/palestinians-want-democracy