Conference of Palestinians in Türkiye challenges Kuwait vote, warns of "engineering" the National Council
It demanded that the electoral process held in Kuwait be annulled and its results not be adopted, and that the reasons for ruling out a direct vote be published and the way the electoral college was formed be disclosed.
Istanbul – FiMED
The Conference of Palestinians in Türkiye challenged the legitimacy of the mechanism used to select representatives of the Palestinian community in Kuwait to the Palestinian National Council, demanding that the results be annulled and the process rerun through direct elections open to eligible members of the community.
In a statement issued on Monday, 7 September, the Conference said two members were chosen from among nine candidates by an "electoral college" that met at the Palestinian embassy in Kuwait, adding that the way the process was conducted raises "serious problems" of representative legitimacy, transparency and oversight.
The statement criticised the abandonment of a direct popular vote in favour of an electoral college without any announced objective reasons proving that a direct ballot of the community was impossible, stressing that free, general, direct and secret elections are the rule, while an electoral college is an exception that must be justified and its reasons made public.
The Conference also questioned the transparency of how the electoral college was formed, noting that no membership criteria, number of members, names, capacities or nominating bodies were announced, nor how far they represented the community's various components, including independents, political currents, women and young people.
The statement pointed to the absence of basic electoral data, including the number of eligible voters, the number of participants, turnout, the votes won by each candidate, spoiled ballots, counting records, and the mechanisms for objections and appeals.
The Conference further criticised holding the process at the embassy under the supervision of a committee that included political figures, without announcing the presence of independent observers or representatives of the candidates, civil society organisations and Palestinian unions, saying this did not provide sufficient guarantees of the independence of the electoral process and the neutrality of its administration.
The Conference demanded that the electoral process held in Kuwait be annulled and its results not be adopted, along with publication of the reasons for ruling out a direct vote and disclosure of how the electoral college was formed and of the detailed voting results.
It called for the process to be rerun through direct elections for eligible members of the community, or through an "open and pluralistic" electoral college formed according to criteria announced in advance, under independent administration, neutral oversight and clear mechanisms for complaints and appeals.
The Conference of Palestinians in Türkiye warned that what happened in Kuwait, together with what it described as reported incidents in other places where Palestinians live, reflects signs of attempts at "engineering the elections" in a way that bypasses the will of Palestinians to choose their representatives.
According to the statement, the Conference stressed that the legitimacy of the Palestinian National Council does not derive merely from announcing results, but from a "free Palestinian will" that can be verified, monitored and held accountable.
