South Africa is to send an 11-member team to observe the Palestinian presidential elections on January 9, the government announced on Tuesday.
The team, led by Dumisani Sithole — chairman of Parliament’s foreign affairs portfolio committee — would leave South Africa on Wednesday and return a week later, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad told reporters in Pretoria.
”South Africa’s participation in observing these elections is pivotal to the Presidential Peace Initiative and the government’s ongoing efforts to assist the conflicting parties in finding a long-lasting resolution to the current political crisis,” he said.
”It is hoped that South Africa’s participation in the election monitoring would contribute to ensuring the freeness and fairness of elections in Palestine, which would subsequently revitalise the peace process.”
Pahad said part of the team’s role would be to ensure that Palestinians were able to move around freely in order to vote. One problem in this regard was the presence of some 700 Israeli checkpoints in the affected areas, he said. However, he noted Israel’s commitment to allowing the Palestinians free movement over the election period.
He expressed South Africa’s concern at the escalation of violence in the occupied territories, ”particularly the recent Israeli incursions in Gaza”.
”The government also calls on all Palestinian militants to stop the firing of rockets and mortars. Such acts of violence are likely to imperil the electoral process and jeopardise the prospects for peace.”
The South African government believed that free and fair elections would contribute towards the resumption of negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel and create conditions necessary for peace.
”South Africa supports the realisation of a two-state solution in the Middle East with an independent state of Palestine coexisting side by side with Israel within secure borders,” Pahad reiterated.
He said it was encouraging that 82 percent of the adult population has registered as voters.
The team comprised Independent Electoral Commission chairwoman Brigalia Bam, her deputy Thoko Mpumlwana, MPs Patrick Sibande and Pinky Mokoto, academic Iqbal Jhazbhay, reverends Vukile Nehana and Edwin Makue, and foreign affairs department delegates Isaac Mogotsi, Zeenat Adam and Nthabiseng Nkosi.
They would be joining hundreds of other observers. Former United States President Jimmy Carter would lead a team of 80, while the European Union (EU) would send a delegation of 260.
South Africa — the only country south of the Sahara to send observers –also
sent a team of observers under the banner of the former Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to elections held in the territory in 1996.
Seven candidates are contesting the Palestinian presidential poll, with Palestinian Liberation Organisation chairman Mahmud Abbas the reported favourite. – Sapa