Palestinian elections of January 2006

Palestinian legislative election, 2006

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All 132 seats to the Palestinian Legislative Council 67 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Ismail Haniyeh Farouk Kaddoumi Ahmad Sa'adat Party Hamas Fatah PFLP Leader's seat Party-list Party-list Party-list Last election boycott 55 seats boycott Seats won 74 45 3 Seat change 74 10 3 Popular vote 440,409 410,554 42,101 Percentage 44.45% 41.43% 4.25%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Qais Abd al-Karim Mustafa Barghouti Salam Fayyad Party The Alternative Independent Palestine Third Way Leader's seat Party-list Party-list Party-list Last election n/a n/a n/a Seats won 2 2 2 Seat change 2 2 2 Popular vote 28,973 26,909 23,862 Percentage 2.92% 2.72% 2.41%
Prime Minister before election Ahmed Qurei Fatah Elected Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh Hamas

PLC 2006: seats
Structure
Political groups	Hamas (74)      Fatah (45)      PFLP (3)      Palestinian People's Party (1)      Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (1)      Independent Palestine (2)      Third Way (2)      Independents (4)

Ahmed Qurei
Fatah

Ismail Haniyeh
Hamas

Elections for the second Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), the legislature of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), were held on 25 January 2006. The result was a victory for Hamas, who won with 74 seats of the 132 seats, whilst the ruling Fatah won just 45. In terms of votes received, Hamas took 44.45% of the vote, whilst Fatah received 41.43% and of the Electoral Districts, Hamas party candidates received 41.73% and Fatah party candidates received 36.96%. The parliament was inaugurated on 18 February 2006.

The Prime Minister, Ahmed Qurei, resigned, but at the request of President Mahmoud Abbas, remained as interim Prime Minister until 19 February 2006, when Hamas leader Ismail Haniya formed a new government.

The election of 2006 marked the second time Palestinians elected members to the Palestine Legislative Council; the previous general election had taken place in 1996. Elections had been postponed for many years due to discord between Fatah and Hamas. An agreement in March 2005 produced the Palestinian Cairo Declaration, which called for legislative elections with a mixed voting system (the 1996 elections had been based on the majority electoral system with multi-member constituencies.

Palestinian voters in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) were eligible to participate in the election. Earlier, the 2005 municipal elections and the 9 January 2005 presidential election had taken place.

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