I’m following the Palestinian election in the news with interest. But one thing puzzles me and it doesn’t seem like the media has addressed it so far…
Marwan Barghouti seems to be one of the main contenders to replace Yasser Arafat. However, he’s in jail. How is he going to run for president from inside a jail cell? Or are the Israelis going to let him out? I honestly have no idea how a currently jailed man can run for any kind of office, anywhere. I presume if the Israelis let him out and he wins, they wouldn’t be too happy. But if they don’t let him out and he wins, what then?
So what’s the Dope on running for office from jail?
No specific answers to your question, but the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands won a by-election while holding his protest in the Maze - so he was an MP for the last three weeks before dying.
Jim Traficant tried to regain his congressional seat in 2002 after being (a) expelled from the House and (b) convicted of various felonies. He got 15% of the vote in his Ohio district.
If Mel Carnahan can win a US Senate seat while dead, I don’t why someone couldn’t win an election just because of a minor inconvenience like jail. Of course, Carnahan had the advantage of running against John Ashcroft.
One of Lyndon LaRouche’s many runs for US President was while he was in federal confinement.
I don’t believe “Pa” Fergurson ever served any time for taking bribes, but he was impeached out of office from the Governor of Texas. He was barred from running again, so his wife “Ma” did a number of times, and was actually elected to the office twice.