President of the Palestinian National Authority

The President of the Palestinian National Authority (Arabic: رئيس السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية‎‎) is the highest-ranking political position (equivalent to head of state) in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The President appoints the Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority from the Palestinian Legislative Council, with whom he shares power.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA or PA) was created by the 1994 Gaza–Jericho Agreement. The 2002 Basic Law, passed by the PLC in 1997, but only ratified by Arafat in 2002, originally established a presidential system, which granted the elected President the exclusive power to appoint and remove Ministers and to preside over the meeting of the Council of Ministers (Art. 62). Ministers were to be approved by the Legislative Council.

Under pressure of the international community and from within his own party Fatah, Arafat appointed a Prime Minister (PM) on 19 March 2003. Accordingly, the Basic Law was changed the day before and the political system was transformed into a semi-presidential one, meaning that President and PM are collectively responsible to the Parliament. More specifically it was a president-parliamentary form of semi-presidentialism, where the PM is responsible to both President and Parliament.

The Amended Basic Law limits the Presidential powers:
"The President of the National Authority shall exercise his executive duties as specified in this law." (Art. 38)

The 2003 Amended Basic Law stipulates that the President has the power to appoint and dismiss the Prime Minister (Art. 45) and the PM is accountable to the president and to the Legislative Council; the Ministers are accountable to the PM (Art. 74). A new Government is subjected to a vote of confidence by the PLC (Art. 66). The Prime Minister chairs the Council of Ministers (Art. 68). Under the 2002 Basic Law, the President presided the Council of Ministers.

The President

The term of the first president was envisioned to cover the interim phase. The second president would be elected in a general and direct election by the Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories. An interim period of five years was defined in the Oslo I Accord and started on 4 May 1994. The first President of the PA was accordingly appointed on 5 July 1994 and elected on 20 January 1996 for the period ending 4 May 1999.

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