A Palestinian street vendor stands next to election campaign posters in Gaza City. Photograph: Ali Ali/EPA
This is the first of a series of blog posts on the forthcoming Palestinian elections from freelance journalist and blogger Laila el-Haddad, who lives in Gaza City. Laila's blog Raising Yousuf, is named after her two-year-old son.
We've had an unusual spell of quiet in our otherwise troubled little Gaza this week. That may be attributed in part to the four-day Eid al-Adha holiday, which comes to its conclusion today. That, in combination with an ailing Ariel Sharon and calls by Mahmoud Abbas to armed groups for some "calm" (not that his calls have necessarily been heeded in the past), has meant a somewhat quieter week: no kidnappings, no government-building takeovers, no night-time machine gun banter between police forces and "disgruntled gunmen" to keep us entertained during breaks from Israeli sonic booms and artillery shells.
The brief calm also seems to strengthen the argument of those who posit that the recent chaos was, in fact, premeditated by certain political elements in an effort to destabilise the government or postpone elections. My guess is the gunmen are too busy devouring their Eid meat.
Let's hope so, because there are less than two weeks left until the "make us or break us" legislative elections arrive and campaigning, in a relative lull during the Eid holiday, has swung back into full gear. Gaza City has become a dizzying display of posters, election banners, and - as if our graffiti problem wasn't bad enough - spray painted campaign slogans over every available inch of wall space.
The campaigners are even invading our private homes. Yesterday I picked up the phone only to hear a rather dreary message from "the Third Way" party head, Salaam Fayad (the former minister of finance). "We from the Third Way wish you a Happy Eid."
The elections will be based on a mixed electoral system that combines district voting and proportional representation, or "lists" (each list must consist of at least seven persons). The 132 seats of the Palestinian legislative council are divided equally between the two systems. There are 16 electoral districts (11 in the West Bank and 5 in the Gaza Strip), with each allocated a number of seats according to its population.
I'm having trouble keeping all the electoral lists apart, so I've made a simple users guide. In all, there are 11 parties, referred to as "lists" here, contesting 66 seats for the national district:
The usual suspects:
The Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah)
The Change and Reform list (Hamas)
Middle runners:
The Alternative list (A coalition of leftist parties)
The Third Way list (Led by technocrat Salaam Fayad and Hanan Ashrawi)
National Initiative list (Independent Palestine) (Led by former presidential candidate Mustafa Barghouthi)
The National Coalition for Justice and Democracy-"Wa'ad" (Promise. Led by renowned Gaza psychiatrist Eyad Sarraj)
Say Who?
Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa list
Martyr Abu al-Abbas list
Freedom and Social Justice list
Freedom and Independence list
The Palestinian Justice list
Confused yet? Don't' worry, so are we. Who is coming up with these party names? I think Sharon's "Kadima" somehow inspired it all. Or what about their election insignia? The ruling party Fatah, in an apparent attempt to brighten its downcast image here, opted for a sunflower with a Palestinian Kaffiya in the shape of a tie sticking out of it.
But the common themes are easily identifiable. Corruption. Security. Unemployment. Development. Education. The feeling on the street is, though, that they have become mere buzzwords. People want to know, when push comes to shove, how will each party REALLY make the streets safer? Hamas has proven itself trustworthy on the municipal level, but how will it perform nationally, as a body of legislators and politicians?
Meanwhile on the streets, campaign trolleys have taken to blasting their messages on megaphones in tandem with not-so-snazzy election music, composed specifically for each party. At least my two-year-old son is enjoying it. He gets up and dances on the coffee table every time the trolley drives by outside.
You can read the second post in this series here.
