On January 20, 1996, elections took place in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem for President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and for members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), the legislative arm of the PNA. East Jerusalem is that part of Jerusalem which was held by Jordan from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War until the Six-Day War in 1967. ... The President of the Palestinian National Authority is the highest-ranking political position (equivalent to head of state) in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). ... ... The Palestinian Legislative Council, the legislature of the Palestinian Authority, is a unicameral body with 88 members, elected from 16 electoral districts in the West Bank and Gaza. ...

The 1996 elections took place in a moment of optimism in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and many Palestinians believed that the government they were electing would be the first of an independent Palestinian state. However, in the ensuing months and years, Israelis and Palestinians failed to resolve their differences and come to a final status agreement, and an upswing in violence meant that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would continue. As a result of this instability, new presidential and legislative elections were not held until nearly a decade later. Proposals for a Palestinian state vary depending on ones views of Palestinian statehood, as well as various definitions of Palestine and Palestinian (see also State of Palestine). ... Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip are at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ...

There were no real strong conventional political parties in place before the election. The results were dominated by Fatah, the strongest movement within the Palestine Liberation Organization, which was headed by Yassir Arafat. The Islamist Hamas, Fatah's main rival and a group considered a terrorist organization by Israel and most Western governments, refused to participate in the election; they felt that doing so would lend legitimacy to the PNA, which was created out of what they called unacceptable negotiations and compromises with Israel. Independent international observers reported the elections to have been free and fair; however, boycotts by Hamas and opposition movements limited voter choices. The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... Yasser Arafat Yasser Arafat (August 4 or August 24, 1929 – November 11, 2004), born Muhammad `Abd ar-Rauf al-Qudwa al-Husayni (Arabic محمد عبد الرؤوف القدوة الحسيني) and also known as Abu `Ammar (ابو عمّار), was co-founder and Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (1969–2004... Islamism is a political ideology derived from the conservative religious views of Muslim fundamentalism. ... The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ...

Presidential election

The president was elected by a simple popular vote. The results of the election were considered a foregone conclusion by most observers, due to Arafat's longtime dominance of the Palestinian political scene (he had been PNA president since its creation and head of the PLO for decades before that) and the high regard he was held in by most Palestinians; his only opponent was activist Samiha Khalil. Arafat won the election with 88.2 percent of the vote to Khalil's 11.5 percent. Samiha Khalil Samiha Khalil (1924-1999) was a prominent figure in Palestinian politics for four decades Born in the village of Anabta in 1924, she dropped out of highschool at the age of seventeen to marry Salameh Khalil. ...

Legislative election

The legislative election saw 88 PLC members elected from multi-member constituencies, with the number of representatives from each constituency determined by population. Some seats were set aside for the Christian and Samaritan communities. The results were as follows: The Palestinian Christians are Palestinians who follow Christianity. ... Samaritans are both a religious and an ethnic group. ...

The Palestinian Legislative Council, the legislature of the Palestinian Authority, is a unicameral body with 88 members, elected from 16 electoral districts in the West Bank and Gaza. ... The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... The Fatah official emblem shows two fists holding rifles and a hand grenade superimposed on a map of the land they claim as Palestine (roughly, present-day Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip). ...

External links

• PNA official Website for results