Afrasianet - Dr. Maysa Al Masri - Through my specialization in political science, I realized that elections are a means of renewing legitimacy, unifying society, and rebuilding the political system on the basis of popular representation.
But when elections come after two decades of disruption, without national consensus, in light of war and geographical and political division, and under the roof of successive legal and administrative engineering, the election does not determine who will win.
A presidential decree was suddenly made specifying the number of members, provided that the number of members is supplemented by appointment, which is not a procedural detail.
Not to mention those who represent the diaspora and the diaspora, we are facing an equation in which the appointment becomes broader than the election, that is, the council, which is supposed to be the title of popular representation, may, in its final composition, become more of a politically detailed council than a council produced by the ballot boxes.
Here the paper falls off the stage, and the truth appears.
Elections that are almost half electable are not elections to renew legitimacy, but elections to redistribute legitimacy.
This process does not take place in a vacuum. It comes at a moment when, for years, the Palestinian geopolitics has been dismantled into separate entities, Gaza has its reality, the West Bank has its reality, Jerusalem has its status, and the diaspora is out of the direct electoral equation.
If the legislative elections come without simultaneous presidential elections, and without rebuilding the PLO on a comprehensive representative basis, they may end up consolidating the separation rather than addressing it.
Are we facing elections that reunite the Palestinians, or are we facing a political process that redefines the Palestinians as the inhabitants of separate areas, each region with its own representation, management and legitimacy?
For some, I would say that this is not just a question of an election law. It is a question of national identity. Because it can produce a more divided political system than it was before.
Ironically, the participation of Hamas, which has apparently left the square of hesitation and called on its supporters to register, does not eliminate this danger, but rather makes the battle more complicated. Suppose Hamas participates, is it actually allowed to participate, or is it only allowed to enter the theater under pre-designed rules to prevent it from reaching the decision-making center?
Participation is one thing, and equal opportunities are another.
This is where Israel intervenes, not as an observer, but as a decisive factor in the political and security environment of the elections. It is difficult to imagine completely free and fair Palestinian elections in light of the occupation, arrests, assassinations, control of the movement, control of Jerusalem, the West Bank and the crossings, and the possibility of influencing candidates, campaigns and voters.
If we add to this an international position that preconditions who are entitled to participate and who are not, the ballot box becomes governed by a political ceiling before it opens.
The problem is not whether this force wins or loses. Rather, the division itself becomes the new legitimacy, so that we can reach a certain conclusion that the elections were engineered by intelligence.
Palestine may wake up after the elections to a legislative council in the West Bank, a de facto authority in Gaza, an authority still seeking to redefine its role, diaspora outside the ballot box, a postponed or carefully designed presidency, and a national council whose seats are divided between the elected and the appointed.
Then we will not be faced with a renewal of the political system, but rather with its reproduction in the form of neighboring political islands, rather than a single national system.
And here, the real title of the scene becomes the election play.
Because manipulation is not always within the ballot box, it may begin much before the ballot box, when designing the law, determining the number of seats, the conditions for candidacy, the distribution of districts, and determining who is elected, who is appointed, who is excluded and who is allowed to enter.
I am afraid that everyone will come out of the theater thinking that they have participated in building a political process, while the process itself has been used to build a new Palestinian reality that is more absurd and fragmented, devoid of the ability to act, and ready to live with what is planned as normal.
Only then will Palestine discover that the battle was not over the seats of the Council, but over who has the right to define Palestine itself, between the West Bank, Gaza and Ramallah.
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