Palestine - 1996 - Palestinian Legislative Council
The 1996 elections in Palestine represented a major step in the Middle East peace processes that had begun nearly 20 years prior, and allowed Palestinians to participate in the democratic process for the first time. Kåre Vollan recalls his experiences in Palestine during the 1996 election process.
The Palestinian elections of 1996 represented a historic advancement of the Middle East peace processes that had begun with the 1979 Camp David Accords and the 1993 Oslo Accords. Through an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Palestine was granted a five-year period of self-rule while the peace process continued. Despite the volatile political environment at the time, Palestinians were extremely supportive of the elections, moving to complete the tasks necessary to hold elections and consolidate government institutions. The 1996 elections presented Palestinians with the opportunity to participate in the building of a democratic state by voting for their own political leaders for the first time in history.
PLO had had their headquarters in Tunisia but with the Oslo Accords they moved first
to Gaza and later to Ramallah on the West Bank. PLO was no longer a terrorist
organisation and the security in Palestine was a joint effort by PLO and the Israelis.
There was good reasons for being optimistic but unfortunately a final agreement was
negotiated within the time set.
Kåre Vollan has since 1995 been working on elections in more than thirty countries and territories, including Nepal, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Iraq, Palestine, South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Armenia, Sri Lanka, Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the period 1996 to 2009, he headed twelve OSCE/ODIHR or Norwegian international election observation missions or teams. Vollan has been teaching and supervising students in elections and power-sharing issues and he has published a number of articles and reports, and co-authored books on electoral and decision-making issues, in particular related to post-conflict situations.
Vollan had roles in all elections in Palestine after the Oslo accords. In 1996, he headed the Norwegian observation team of 56 observers to the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and presidential elections. In 2004 he was advisor to the PLC legal committee when drafting a new election law, and he reported from the elections in 2004 (local), 2005 (presidential) and 2006 (PLC) for the Norwegian embassy, and wrote with a colleague an extensive report on the elections. (Butenschøn and Vollan: Democracy in Conflict 2006.)
Listen to Kåre Vollan speak in depth about his experience in the 1996 Palestine elections in the recording above.
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