An Electoral Register from Scratch: The Palestinian Elections of 20 January 1996
Following the signing of the 1993 Declaration of Principles between the Palestinians and Israel in Oslo, planning started towards the holding of elections for the President and Legislative Council in the Occupied Palestinian Territory: the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. The realisation of the Declaration of Principles required further detailed negotiation and agreement: many of the issues related to the elections were included in these negotiations, which lasted until September 1995 when the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement was signed. The political timetable then dictated that the elections should take place as soon as possible: 20 January 1996 was the date chosen. The European Commission signed an agreement with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to provide funding and technical assistance for the elections.
No elections of any kind had taken place in the Gaza Strip since the 1940s, and none were held in the West Bank since elections in some major cities in the 1970s. Israeli occupation was withdrawn from the Gaza Strip and Jericho in May 1994 and from some major West Bank urban centres in late 1995, but continued elsewhere. The new PNA had no registration information or infrastructure of any kind. The electoral registration system had to be devised from scratch.
The system was created under a variety of constraints and difficulties:
- The PNA had initially no money and no tax base. Accordingly, major activities such as elections required the agreement of an external donor for financial support, with the attendant criteria and approval procedures.
- The institutions of the Palestinian government were all newly formed and interinstitutional arrangements did not therefore exist. An agreement had to be reached between the Palestinian Commission for Local Government and Elections (PCLGE), the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and the Ministry of Local Government relating to the acquisition of the system for the elections, the assembly of the register and the future use of the system for both electoral and general population/statistical purposes. Tensions existed in particular between the speed and focus needed to create the register required for a fast election and the more extensive work necessary to establish a general population register.
- In addition, while donor support could fund electoral preparations consistent with a wider purpose, the spending of donor funds on activities that contributed only to the wider population register objectives was not allowed under the funding agreements.
- There was considerable debate between PCLGE, PCBS, the Ministry of Local Government, and other parts of the PNA as to which body would have which responsibilities in both the short and long-term.
- The election provisions of the Interim Agreement included requirements for comparison between the Palestinian draft register and the Israeli population register for the Occupied Territories. This strongly influenced the choice of computer hardware and software, in order to ensure that these comparisons were technically possible. A RISC system that used Unix and Oracle was chosen.
- The PCLGE chose an electoral system based on majoritarian voting in 16 constituencies. The register had to be compatible with this system.
Creating the register
The polling hours and the voting procedure were determined by the PCLGE at an early stage, leading to a target maximum of 750 electors per polling station. From their existing estimates of the average household size in the West Bank and Gaza, PCBS calculated a figure for the maximum number of houses per polling district. PCBS then undertook the Community Survey for Elections, which gathered demographic information and which generated hand-drawn maps indicating all buildings within each town, village and hamlet (no other maps being available). The maps were used to define residential polling districts with boundaries that were clear on the ground, each of which was allocated a five digit code consisting of two digits identifying the constituency and three digits identifying the polling district within the constituency.
Qualified electors were required to be Palestinian as defined in the election law, 18 or older on the day of election, and not disqualified for reason of criminal offense or mental incapacity. In order to maximize registration and as part of the process of civic education leading to first elections, the registration in each polling district was conducted through active canvassing by a five member Polling Station Commission (PSC), who were later also responsible for the poll and the count. At least three visits were made to each house to ensure all potential electors were contacted. A registration form for each elector was completed and signed by the elector. In addition, the elector was given a Confirmation of Provisional Registration.
The central computer centre for the registration was established at and run by PCBS on behalf of PCLGE and the Palestinian Central Election Commission, the successor body to PCLGE which assumed responsibility for the election process after the passage of the election law. Each PSC transferred the information from the registration forms on a weekly basis to computer input forms which were designed for both Optical Mark Reader (OMR) and manual use.
The use of OMR machines was an experiment. Although it had been hoped that the bulk of input would take place through the three OMR machines installed, the speed of input in practice was lower than expected. The computer centre was also equipped with 48 manual input terminals designed both for the processing of additions and amendments and as a backup system to the OMR equipment. These terminals were operated on three full shifts over the period of initial register entry, about five weeks, and the task was completed against the very tight deadlines. The importance of a backup system when using what was at that time still developing technology was strongly demonstrated. At the same time, what was a disappointment also gave valuable experience for the possible use of future development of the technology.
During the first five weeks of input, about 1 million entries were made, each consisting of constituency and polling district identifier, name (up to four components), address, date of birth, sex, ID number (nine digits), and ID type (single digit code). In the two weeks before polling day, a provisional register of electors was printed and published on the two heavy duty dot matrix printers installed. As a result of the short time available and the state of the art of technology at the time, this printed register contained only the numeric details (polling district details, sequential elector registration number within the polling district, date of birth, sex, ID number and ID type). The Arabic alphabetic characters—the names and addresses—were written in by hand by the PSC before the publication of the register.
Over the remaining three weeks up to polling, some 30,000 additions and amendments resulting from the submission of claims and objections to the provisional register were input. The final pre-publication draft register was compared with the Israeli population register as contained in the negotiated agreement, and entries that did not match were resolved between Palestinians and Israelis. The final register for the election was then printed, dispatched to PSCs for the hand entry of alpha characters. It was available in all 1700 or so polling districts on the day—only 10 weeks after the first day of the registration canvass.
The purchasing process
The purchasing of equipment for the implementation of the computerised register was funded by European Commission (EC) money and was therefore subject to the EC’s procedural requirements. The description that follows reflects the way in which these procedures worked in this particular instance. While the underlying principles of transparency and financial accountability are still of the essence, it should not be assumed that the detailed requirements of this process would now remain the same.
Step 1: Initial budget
A series of contracts were drawn up and signed by the European Commission and the Palestinian Commission for Local Government and Elections (PCLGE), governing the provision of funding for different aspects of election planning and working within the overall budget allocation for support to the elections approved by the appropriate committee of EC member states. Budget lines for the purchase of computer equipment were included in one such contract, based on outline costings established by the EC with PCLGE and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) as part of the initial detailed planning of the EC election support.
Step 2: Tender list
General EC tender requirements provided that suppliers should be drawn from companies registered either in the Palestinian territories or within EC member states. In view of the constraints and difficulties that pertained at the time to supply of goods and customs clearance to the Palestinian territories through Israel, EC approval was obtained to draw up a restricted tender list of companies based within the Palestinian territories. From their knowledge of local computer suppliers, PCLGE and PCBS drew up a list of nine potential suppliers for the equipment and submitted it to the EC for approval.
Step 3: Proposal document
The Proposal Document was drawn up by PCBS and dispatched to the companies on the restricted tender list, giving the companies three weeks to respond. This document contained the technical requirements of the system to be purchased.
The technical specifications included:
- general requirements of the minimum configuration for hardware, including the requirement of full ability to function using Arabic characters, and specifying that any future expansion should not require major changes to the system and therefore that top-of-range models would not be acceptable;
- central processing unit specifications, including expandability, number of terminals supported, and minimum and benchmark performance speeds;
- main memory requirements;
- magnetic tape streaming unit specifications;
- display console requirements;
- optional terminal server specifications;
- workstation and PC specifications;
- Specifications for two heavy duty laser printers, two ordinary printers, a dot matrix printer and two system printers;
- uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) requirements;
- system communications requirements and diagram;
- UNIX operating system requirements;
- supply and installation requirements of Oracle 7 database management system; and
- the requirement for the tender to define site specifications necessary for the equipment to be supplied.
The detailed specifications offered were to be entered on Technical Data Sheets supplied.
The tenders were also required:
- to specify earliest and latest delivery dates, as time was of the essence in the planning of the election timetable;
- to supply two original complete sets of manuals, in English and also if available in Arabic, for all hardware and software that they proposed to supply; and
- to supply all necessary training and to specify their proposals for this.
Tenders were to be accompanied by a Bid Bond of 5% of the value of the tender, a Performance Bond of 10% of the value of the tender and a Warranty Period Bond of 10% of the value of the tender. The Performance Bond would be retained until the final payment of the purchase price had been made. The Warranty Period Bond would be retained until the warranty period on each piece of equipment supplied had expired.
Payment was to be made in three instalments; 25% within 15 days of signature, 50% within 90 days of delivery, installation and commissioning as evidenced by a Document of Acceptance, and the final 25% only after the complete system had operated satisfactorily for two successive months. The Performance and Warranty Period Bonds would remain in force through this period, and the Warranty Period Bond also afterwards.
Step 4: Evaluation
The interinstitutional agreement between PCLGE, PCBS and the Ministry of Local Government provided for a Joint Procurement Committee (JPC), with three members from PCBS, two from PCLGE and one appointed by the EC. Before opening the replies to the tender, the JPC developed a set of standard evaluation criteria for all bids, scoring 50 points for the hardware and software offered (broken down between all the different items to be supplied), 12 points for the experience and support offered by the company, 18 points for provisions for delivery timetable, installation, documentation and training. The decision was taken to adopt the best technical solution offered as long as it met the criteria of the tender document and the price was within the agreed budget. It was also decided that following further technical consideration after the issue of the tender, the purchase of Oracle would be better made directly from an Oracle agent, and the element of each tender (including the price) relating to the supply of Oracle was therefore ignored.
Tenders were received from all nine short listed companies: two companies submitted two options each, making a total of eleven bids to be evaluated. The tenders were opened and initiated. Six of the eleven tenders were eliminated as not complying with the technical specifications issued.
There were several points of clarification required in relation to the remaining five tenders. A clarification form was accordingly issued in relation to each of the five apparently compliant tenders, with a one week deadline for its return. Following return of these forms, the JPC undertook the evaluation, scored each item of each tender, and placed the five tenders in order.
The negotiation of the final contract between the PNA and the successful tender followed. Minor amendments were made to the originally published payment schedule. More detailed provisions for regular preventative maintenance (to take place every two weeks), 24 hour emergency maintenance cover, the availability without cost of replacement equipment should the equipment supplied fail for more than 24 hours, and the guarantee provisions were agreed.
Step 5: Supply and installation
The contract was signed with the successful tender on 26 August 1995. While there were the inevitable small problems, the success of the system is probably best measured by the fact that electoral registration started on 12 November 1995, with the first registration forms arriving at the newly commissioned election computer at PCBS in the few days following: and that a register of over one million names was completed, printed, reviewed, amended and made available for use on polling day only ten weeks later on 20 January 1996.
