Out of Country Voting

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النسخة العربية

WHAT IS OCV

OCV FOR PALESTINE

OUT OF COUNTRY VOTING IN PALESTINE/HOLY LAND:

What about including the diaspora and refugees in elections? What about hearing their voice? Is there an example that allowed refugees to vote from outside their country and the votes to be accepted internationally? Yes, there is. Over 850,000 Afghan refugees in camps were allowed to vote in elections. The process used was Out of Country Voting (OCV) and was organised over 80 days - voter registration and voting.

The suggestion entails viewing the expulsions of 1948 and 1967 not only as expulsions of people, but also as expulsions of 'voters'. By organising a 'voter registration', a list of 'missing voters' will be compiled in the process. Approximately 1 million people voted in the 2006 elections in the West Bank and Gaza. Approximately another 2 million would be eligible to vote with Out of Country Voting.

Photo source: Central Elections Commission - Palestine

Many diaspora and refugees are registered on different lists already. For example: Jordan - on the voter registration list for Jordanian elections, Lebanon - on the UN list for receiving aid, UK - on political asylum list, driving licence list, local council list.

Has it helped being invisible when elections have been held for the last 50 years? Would it help for people in the world to know there have been more than 2 million 'missing' diaspora and refugee voters?

Click to find out:

So, how would this process be useful:

for any solution for the refugees, it's likely they would like a referendum on any solutions - this will need 'voter registration'
for any solutions, it's likely the refugees would like to elect representatives who can negotiate and speak for them - this means voter registration and elections
for people to see more of the picture, it would help if the voter registration was done so that people registering would register their names to their ancestral town/electoral district - so showing all the 'missing voters', for example in Jerusalem, Nazareth, Acre and others.

The Afghan OCV was organised in 80 days with a budget of $92 million, with a lot of Out of Country Voting (OCV) expertise hired from around the world. There are also lower cost alternatives. There are 2 stages involved. The first stage is voter registration - this can be organised at $1 (using polaroid) to $2 (using digital) per person - which allows people around the world to see the 'missing voters'. Also there already is expertise at the Central Elections Commission (CEC-Palestine) in Ramallah, who could help with training, perhaps doing the registration in stages, from one country to the other.

Elections for representatives could be organised afterwards - and could also be organised again, perhaps 1 week before any elections for the Knesset - so helping people around the world see what has been happenning since 1948. The sooner the voter registration happens, the sooner refugees can vote for represenatives who can negotiate for them.

The OCV process will help make the voices of the diaspora and refugees heard. It is time to give people something positive to be in favour of. The process will also help people and politicians around the world with information on 'missing voters' and will help them to relook at their policies more impartially:

OCV Elected representatives could send negotiators to negotiations, to speak on behalf of Diaspora and Refugees
OCV elected representatives could help in organising referendums on any solutions and learn from the referendum results
OCV elected representatives could also visit other Parliaments around the world and ask for the 2 million+ OCV votes to be recognised, and valid for having seats in the respective government bodies according to where the ancestral towns/lands were
OCV elected representatives could also help address day-to-day issues of the diaspora and refugees

More information on Palestinian diaspora/refugees around the world:

Although no accurate census exists, the number of Palestinians worldwide is estimated at nine a half million people. Of those, four million individuals are de jure stateless persons:
Information from Refugees International
Information from Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics

Click here to get a breakdown of the Palestinian diaspora by country and area (1998).

Refugees registered with the UN per country and area:
http://www.passia.org/palestine_facts/MAPS/Refugees-UNWRA-2001.html (2003)
http://www.un.org/unrwa/publications/pdf/rr_countryandarea.pdf (2005)

The process of OCV itself could help provide more accurate statistics on Palestinians around the world.

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Created: Jan 22, 2008; Last modified: Mar 23, 2008