Where to be born for president of Palestine?

November 11, 2009 4:11 PM

Are there steadfast constitutional rules - like birthplace - for those who seek political office in the Palestinian Territories?
posted by parmanparman to Grab Bag (6 answers total)

Best answer: Conditions for nomination for presidency of the PNA:

The candidate must be:
1. Palestinian and born to Palestinian parents.
2. At least 40 years old polling day.
3. A permanent resident of the Palestinian Territory.
4. Registered in the final voters list and meet all conditions to vote.

A person is denied the right to nominate her/himself for presidency if:
1. She/he is denied the right to vote.
2. She/he is denied the right to nominate her/himself based on a valid juridical court judgment.
3. She/he is convicted of a crime.

Conditions for nomination for the Palestinian Legislative Council:
The candidate must be:

1. Palestinian.
2. At least 28 years old on polling day.
3. Registered in the final voters list.
4. A permanent resident of the Palestinian Territory.
5. Free of any felony convictions.

Note: A candidate cannot be nominated for presidency and the PLC at the same time.

Individuals in the following positions cannot nominate themselves unless they first resign from their positions:
1. Ministers.
2. PNA employees and/or those who receive a salary from the PNA’s treasury.
3. Employees of international organizations, public organizations and local councils.
4. Directors of non-governmental organizations.
5. Heads of local councils. People who previously held these positions and resigned cannot return to these positions unless they are elected again according to Local Council’s Law.

Note: There is an exception to the above mentioned provision for the current president and PLC members which states that they should not resign from their positions for the next nomination.
Note: Judges, security officers and governors cannot return to their positions if they did not win during elections.

Conditions for nomination for local councils:
The candidate must:
1. Be at least 25 years old on polling day.
2. Be registered in the final voters list for his/her electoral district and meet all conditions to vote.
3. Never have been convicted of a crime or felony.
4. Not be an employee in the Ministry of Local Governance, security forces, local council or a lawyer for one of these bodies, unless he/she resigns from this position prior to nomination.
5. Have resided within the borders of the electoral district in which she/he is running for not less than one year. In addition, he/she should not be nominated for office in another locality.

(source)
posted by oinopaponton at 4:19 PM on November 11, 2009 [2 favorites]

(another link, if the first is behaving wonkily for you like it now is for me)
posted by oinopaponton at 4:23 PM on November 11, 2009

I think the key word in your question is "steadfast". These rules are on paper, but that doesn't mean they follow them. Elections in the Palestinian territories are not what we in the West would consider "free and fair".
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 4:32 PM on November 11, 2009

I would be skeptical of this as a constitutional structure as well, given the impending warnings of essential collapse of the PNA as an entity should Abbas resign. There's a non-trivial sense in which the PNA is an aspirational government and also one in which it's a puppet government. It's what the PLO created to implement its part of the Oslo Accords. It didn't spring into being naturally and has never really come into its own as a national entity. If push comes to shove, most Palestinians will stick with the faction that brung 'em, e.g. Fatah or the PFLP. As in Gaza, where distrust of the PNA ran so strong that Hamas was basically able to rumble them within a few days' time.

The extent to which any constitution is followed is largely a testament to the self-interest of Fatah in pursuing the Oslo/Wye River solution.
posted by dhartung at 5:40 PM on November 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

When Arafat was still alive and still in charge, he maintained control and some degree of cohesion through wide-spread graft and patronage. Arafat's real authority didn't come from him being elected; it came from the fact that he controlled the flow of international aid money and could decide who got to steal it, and how much.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:54 PM on November 11, 2009

...and today the elections are cancelled regardless.

Whomever ends up running the PNA, should the entity continue to exist in anything other than a strictly legal sense, will be the result of a power play at the highest levels, and I include the White House, No. 10, and the Élysée.

Chocolate, I don't disagree in toto, but Arafat was a figure for the Palestinians of something above political significance. He also ran Fatah, and Fatah dominates the PLO. Arafat being elected was less about his personal popularity than it was about him having cornered the role of national figure. The West understood this and the PNA was in some ways an explicit "make-work" program to ensure that various political factions remained within the process. This has broken down for a variety of reasons both internal and external.
posted by dhartung at 12:39 PM on November 12, 2009