Palestinian Parliamentary Elections
January 2006

    In the January 25, 2006 Palestinian Parliamentary elections Hamas became a major player on the international arena by shocking the Western world with a victory over Fatah. Within a 132 seat Parliament, Hamas won 74 seats and Fatah won 45 seats, with a voter turnout of around 77%. The elections came after a large American push for a democratic process with the Palestinian Authority, even though Israel strongly warned of the dangers of these elections. This victory of Hamas over Fatah on what appeared to be a legitimate contest, gave birth to a stronger and appearingly more legitimized terrorist faction.


For more Information:
Palestinian Parliamentary Elections 2006- GlobalSecurity.org
Palestinian legislative election, 2006- Wikipedia
Hamas Sweeps Palestinian Elections, Complicating Peace Efforts in Mideast- The Washington Post
Hamas' past casts shadow over peace plans- CNN
Helping Palestinians Build a Better Future- Condoleeza Rice
The National Security Strategy of the United States of America
Rice Urges Israel to Aid Palestinian Election- The New York Times




                                            
                 

US President George BUSH and US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Prime Minister  Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas Leader Khaled Meshaal

          

Official Election Results

Election results by Specific district

Election Results by Seat Distribution

This map does a great job of showing the high voter turnout in the 2006 Palestinian elections. The map also shows the higher voter turnout of the cities in the Gaza Strip as compared to the cities in the West Bank. This demonstrates the high political activity of the residents of the Gaza Strip.

This map does a great job of portraying the system that is used in the Palestinian elections. There is a brief description of all the major cities in terms of the inhabited population and most of all the faction they will most likely support. The support for Hamas in Gaza and in the West Bank does not come across as a surprise when looking at this descriptive map.