Public Lecture on “The Working Mechanisms of Elections Committees from a Comparative Approach”

On Thursday 07/11/2013, The Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Institute of International Studies at Birzeit University conducted a lecture under the title of: “The Working Mechanisms of Elections Committees from a Comparative Approach.” In this lecture Dr. Taleb Awad, the Director of the Arab World Observatory for Democracy and Elections, presented the details of the different electoral regulations which are implemented in the Arab World; indicating that the presence of elections in a certain country does not necessarily mean that there is democracy, however the talk about democracy cannot be done without the presence of elections.

In this lecture, Dr. Awad discussed the formation of the Palestinian Central Elections Committee which was accomplished in October 2002 in accordance with the elections law of 1995. Dr. Awad explained the administrative ways that run elections in different Arab countries by saying: “the diversity of qualifications in the economic, social and political situation in Arab countries and the different ruling systems call for a development of electoral laws that suits the conditions of each country as long as it done agreeably and as a result of an inclusive, decent and transparent national debate between different social and political players in this society or that.”