Today on “This Day in History in the Israel-Palestine Conflict”: Yasser Arafat elected President of the newly founded Palestine National Authority On January 20, 1996 the first election to appoint a Palestinian governing authority was held. The Palestine National Authority (PA) came took shape as a legitimate government body to represent the Palestinian people and act as a negotiating partner in the peace negotiations with Israel, as per the Oslo Accords.Yasser Arafat of the Fatah Party was elected as the Palestinian President with a majority vote of 88.2% and a legislative council was formed. The elections were observed by 519 International observers and more than 2000 local observers in a free and democratic manner. There were also 25 women candidates in the elections, with 5 winners. Women constituted 5.7% of the 88 member parliament. The elections were meant as part of a transitional period that would enable a fit government to take authority once the Israeli’s and Palestinians had reached a final status agreement. However, those who opposed the elections claimed that the elections, as they were held at the time, would give Palestine its final shape, thus conceding large parts of what many considered to be rightfully part of Palestine to the State of Israel. Sources: elections.ps/Portals/0/pdf/Resultselection1996.pdf teacher.scholastic/scholasticnews/indepth/upfront/grolier/pna.htm elections.ps/tabid/813/language/en-US/Default.aspx jstor.org/stable/4328987
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 18:00:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015