General elections were held for the first time in the Palestinian territories on 20 January 1996 to elect the President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), the legislative arm of the PNA. They took place in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. A new government was formed following the elections, headed by President Yasser Arafat.

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1996 Palestinian general election

20 January 1996

Presidential election

2005 →

Candidate Yasser Arafat Samiha Khalil Party Fatah DFLP Popular vote 643,079 72,887 Percentage 89.82% 10.18%

President before election Yasser Arafat Fatah President-elect Yasser Arafat Fatah

Parliamentary election

2006 →

All 88 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council 45 seats needed for a majority

Party Leader % Seats Fatah Yasser Arafat 30.90 50 NDC 2.25 1 FIDA Yasser Abed Rabbo 2.04 1 LIB 1.64 1 Independents – 57.51 35 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

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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 Yasser Arafat. The Islamist Hamas, Fatah's main rival, 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.

Despite considerable Israeli obstruction,^[1] the PCBS was able to arrange the necessary voter registration. Obstructions included long delays in providing maps and necessary information, and insistence on Hebrew-only documents; in Gaza, six tons of voter registration cards were held up at the Erez crossing, and eventually they had to be "passed by hand over the concrete barriers that surround the checkpoint".

Elections in the OPT are held to exercise the Palestinian right to self-determination in connection with their right to establish their own state, but are held within the context of the Israeli occupation.^[4] They are held in the framework of the Oslo Accords, meaning that the power of the PNA was (and is) limited to matters such as culture, education, ID cards and the distribution of the land and water.

A controversial claim has been made, that changes of the political reality, including elections and the formation of new political entities under occupation are, like the Oslo Accords themselves, contrary to the Geneva Conventions and thus illegal. This argument is generally not accepted, as the Accords were meant as a temporary stepping stone to Palestinian self-determination.^[5] Some view elections in the Palestinian Territories as little more than symbolic, given the limited power they grant.

Political freedom is limited in the Palestinian Territories; checkpoints and separation walls are already fit to hinder all social activities. The parliament cannot function, merely because free travel is not possible, especially between Gaza and West Bank. In addition to this, hostilities between Fatah and Hamas hinder the correct functioning of the parliament.

Moreover, PNA and parliament do not represent the Palestinian diaspora (to which the PLO is entitled).

The 1996 elections took place in a moment of optimism in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process; many Palestinians believed that the government they were electing would be the first of an independent Palestinian state. In the ensuing months and years however, Israelis and Palestinians failed to resolve their differences and come to a final status agreement; an upswing in violence meant that the Israeli–Palestinian conflict would continue. As a result of this instability, new elections were not held until nearly a decade later.