Sunday 21 October 2012

Local Elections

By chance, we happen to be here during the elections for the local council and mayor. This has not had much impact except that Mayor Adly Yaish will be standing down with a new mayor taking his place.

There are some noisy processions and cars but overall the main sign is lots of posters.

When we visited a school on Thursday we had to walk through a military and police barrier which was protecting the school during the period when the military adn police were voting (leaving them free to protect all the other voters on Saturday).

The election is by proportional representation and there are three lists on offer:

  • Fatah (the party of the government)
  • Independents (members of Fatah)
  • Leftists

Someone told us that they were voting for Ghassan Shaka'a because he and his list were the least corrupt of all the lists. But it sounded like a common complaint against politicians though they did think that Mayor Yaish was free of corruption.

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