Rights center: Elections are a legal right and postponing them requires legal justifications

The Protection Center for Human Rights demands clarification of the legal justifications for postponing the Palestinian legislative elections, warning against turning exceptional circumstances into a pretext for suspending political rights, and calling for a comprehensive national dialogue.

The Protection Center for Human Rights issued a statement on Saturday demanding clarification of the legal and substantive justifications for the decision to postpone the Palestinian legislative elections. The center warned against turning exceptional circumstances into an open pretext for suspending political rights or subjecting the renewal of legitimacy to personal and partisan calculations. It affirmed that renewing legitimacy through free and fair periodic elections represents a constitutional entitlement and an inherent right of the Palestinian people, and a national opportunity to end the division and unify institutions on the basis of popular will and the rule of law. The statement relied on the provisions of the amended Palestinian Basic Law and Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The center warned that the continued absence of elected institutions weakens oversight and accountability, disrupts the balance between powers, and deepens the crisis of the political system. It called for clarifying the legal justifications for the postponement and the measures taken to overcome obstacles, and for preparing the conditions needed to hold the elections at the announced date. It also called for launching a comprehensive national dialogue within a defined timetable that ensures the participation of citizens in Gaza and the West Bank, including Jerusalem, without exclusion, and guarantees public freedoms, equal opportunity, and independent oversight.