Lecture Examines Palestinian Electoral System

Birzeit University’s Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Institute of International Studies organized a December 10, 2013 lecture on the effects of the electoral system on the Palestinian political regime. Adnan Odeh, author of the book “The Palestinian Electoral System and its Effects on the Political and Factional System” spoke at the lecture on its premise that the electoral system does not directly affect the political system, but rather through political parties.

Odeh started the lecture by describing the three basic electoral systems that exist, the majority system, the percentile system and the mixed system.

The author went on to say that the majority system was implemented through the Palestinian electoral law of 1995 in order to guarantee the majority for the ruling party. This decision was contrary to the wishes of many Palestinian political and academic circles at that time, who wanted a percentile or mixed system.

“The Palestinian parliament was used as an instrument to realize personal goals and not for the creation of real democratic reform and a solid political reality,” said Odeh. “This created a problem in understanding the role of the parliament, which was supposed to play a legislative and supervisory role on government’s work.”