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The second Palestinian Legislative Council Elections Second elections since a decade (1997)
The Central Elections Committee, CEC announced on 26 January 2006 the preliminary results of the second PLC elections !
Party Lists 66 Districts 66 Total Hamas Change & Reform 30 46 76 Fateh Movement 27 16 43 Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa 3 0 3 The Alternative 2 0 2 Independent Palest. 2 0 2 The Third Way 2 0 2 Independents 0 4 4 (132)
Around Seventy seven percent of the 1.3 million residents of West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem cast ballots on Wednesday the 25th of January 2006, to choose their representatives at the PA legislative council for the coming four years. It’s the 2nd Parliamentary elections, since the establishment of the PA amid local, regional and international extra interest in this Palestinian event.
The elections process as scheduled started at 7 am and ended up at 7 pm! Around 1008 ballots centers in all Gaza, and the West Bank in which there were 2721 electoral posts! The Elections Central Commission announced that 20 thousand employees supervised over this elections day. According to the Palestinian elections law, that is the base of these elections, each candidate had to select his representatives for the council according to the lists and districts system. Whereas the number of the legislative council lifted up to 132 seats instead of 88. this is according to presidential referendum that president Mahmoud Abbas issued last year. Sixty six of these seats are designated to the lists and 66 others to the districts. Eleven lists competed for these elections, 314 candidates among them 70 women. 414 candidates ran for the districts seats representing various Palestinian social and political sectors! Following is the distribution of the candidates and their representation in all the regions:
Jerusalem: 39 candidates for 6 seats Jenin : 32 candidates for 4 seats Toulkarem : 17 candidates for 3 seats Toubas : 9 candidates for 1 seat Nablus : 30 candidate for 6 seats Qalkilia : 10 candidates for 2 seats Salfit : 11 candidates for 1 seat Ramallah : 34 candidates for 5 seats Jericho : 5 candidates for 1 seat Bethlehem : 32 candidates for 4 seats Hebron : 46 candidates for 9 seats Gaza North : 27 candidates for 5 seats Gaza City 49 candidates for 8 seats Deir al-Balah :18 candidates for 3 seats Khan Unis : 43 candidates for 5 seats Rafah 12 candidates for 3 seats.
There were 25713 representatives of various political parties at the elections central committee distributed among the Palestinian territories. More than 850 international observers watched over the process of these elections, from the EU, USA, Russia, Canada, South Africa, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan. Jimmy Carter and Madelene Allbright among these observeres, and Abdel Salaam al Majali the Jordanian ex-prime minister; in addition to thousands of Palestinian activists representing the civic organizations in Palestine.
Worth mentioning it’s the 1st elections to take place according to the new electoral system with the participation of various Palestinian parties and groups except for Islamic Jihad organization.
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