Birzeit University to hold Student Council elections on May 18 after two-year pause

After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Birzeit University’s Student Councilelections will be held on campus on May 18, 2022. The student blocs will present their platforms on May 16, and the electoral debate between the bloc representatives will be held on May 17, per the election committee’s recent announcement.

Announcing the upcoming elections, Dr. Iyad Tumar, Birzeit University’s dean of student affairs, said that the student blocs will compete for 51 seats in total. He added that electoral silence, a ban on student campaigning before the elections, will take effect on Saturday, April 9.

In the 2019 Student Council elections — the last student elections held before COVID-19 forced a stop to virtually all on-campus activities — the Martyr Yasser Arafat Bloc secured 23 seats with 4065 votes, Al Wafa' Islamic Bloc secured 23 seats with 3997 votes, and the Democratic Progressive Student Pole secured five seats overall.

Student Council elections are a core aspect of students’ experience at Birzeit University, symbolizing the principles of democracy and freedom of thought and expression enshrined in the university’s laws and regulations and practiced daily in its halls and yards. The values the elections represent align with the university’s vision of its campus as an open space encouraging integrity and transparency and bolstering pluralism and diversity in Palestine.