Elections In Late Ottoman Palestine: Early Exercises In Political Representation

Mahmoud Yazbak The Law on Provincial Administration (the vilayet Law) Istanbul enacted in 1864 and the amendment that followed in 1871 were part of the reforms instigated by the Sublime Porte to keep pace with global developments. Among the major changes this law brought about was a transformation in the way members of the Administrative Councils were nominated; specifically, councils were now to be made up of ex-officio members and a further number of elected members, both Muslims and non-Muslims. At the level of the qada, Paragraph 5 sets out in detail how its council members were elected. First an election committee consisting of the qaimaqam, the qadi, the mufti, the qada scribes and the mukhtars of the non-Muslim communities was convened in the center of the qada