PARC’s Supporters Won 8 Seats
In the 4th Round of the Palestinian Municipal Councils
22 December 2005
A week ago, the curtain was hung down on the Palestinian
local and municipal elections, which were convened in
four rounds throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip; the
first three rounds were held in late 2004, May 2005 and
in September 2005 respectively. On December 15, 2005,
the forth round was held according to the proportional
representation system, which was adopted in the third
round too. 148,000 eligible people cast their votes to
choose 465 members of large town and city municipalities
additional to village councils in 40 electoral
districts.
The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee is pleased to
inform all of its partners and friends that 8 activists and
associates representing PARC’s off-shoot associations have
won seats in 7 village councils in the north of the West
Bank as follows where women and men achieved equal results
in this round¹ :
No.
Name
Association
Municipal Council
1
Assem Jarrar²
Youth Development Association
Al-Fandqomiyyeh/ Jenin
2
Maryam N’eerat
Rural Women’s Development Society
& Member of PARC’s Board of Directors
Maithaloon/ Jenin
3
Sahar I’liyyan
Rural Women’s Development Society
Deir Abu Da’eef³/
Jenin
4
Amal Zeidat
Rural Women’s Development Society
Deir Abu Da’eef/
Jenin
5
Samaher Abu El- Rub
Rural Women’s Development Society
Jalboun/ Jenin
6
Kamel Abdel Fattah
Palestinian Farmers Union
Maithaloon/ Jenin
7
Ashraf Nasser
Youth Development Association
Bazaria/ Nablus
8
Rabeh Abu Omar
Palestinian Farmers Union
Borqa/ Nablus
Out of its active participation in the municipal
elections, PARC wished to aggrandize its role in
influencing the Palestinian politics by advocating for
policies and laws that can protect rural people’s rights
and achieve rural and agricultural sustainable
development. Therefore, PARC and its associates invested
great efforts in mobilizing farmers, men and women, to
effectively exercise their full civic rights including
their right of voting and candidacy.
PARC wishes to congratulate the Palestinian people for
the new significant achievement in their political life
and wishes to inform you that 8 people (3 women and 5
men) of its staff and the Board of Directors have
decided to stand for the upcoming parliamentary
elections (Legislative Council), which will be held in
January, 2006.
We hope to convey our heartfelt wishes to all the
candidates particularly our associates to have
outstanding competition and achievement in free,
clean and democratic elections.
We would like also to express our absolute position
against the American and Israeli intervention in
these elections. Our people must have the full
sovereignty and control over these elections in
terms of deciding when, where and how they are to be
convened.
¹
By the end of this round, PARC achieved in total 52 seats in
the municipal elections.
²
Mr. Jarrar was elected the mayor of the council at the first
session of the new elected council.
³
It’s worth noting that PARC met stiff resistance by the
local people of this village against our initiation of the
women’s club there in late 1990s.
