In January 2006 the Palestinian Authority held legislative elections which
international observers agreed to be free and fair with a turn-out of over 75% – higher than the turn-out in the last elections in the US or the UK. International observers’ only criticisms were on Israeli military travel restrictions and their refusal to allow voting in East Jerusalem. Hamas won 45 % of the vote and a majority of the seats in the legislative assembly compared to Fatah’s 42%. The victory for Hamas was partly due to corruption among Fatah officials who are accused of diverting government funds and aid into their own pockets. (1), (2), (3), (4),(5)....
(1) = Associated Press 26 Jan 2006 , ‘Hamas Wins Landslide 76 Seats’,
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic...26/international/i094327S41.DTL&feed=rss.news
(article cites corruption as mean reason Fatah lost)
(2) = House of Commons Library Research Paper 06/17 ; 15 Mar 2006 , ‘The Palestinian Parliamentary Election and the rise of Hamas’,
http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp2006/rp06-017.pdf (see Section C, page 12 ‘Conduct of the Elections’ – also note the paper mistakenly gives the date of the elections as January 2005 – this must be a typo – the parliamentary elections were a year later)
(3) = Washington Post 27 Jan 2006, ‘Hamas Sweeps Palestinian Elections, Complicating Peace Efforts in Mideast’,
Hamas Sweeps Palestinian Elections, Complicating Peace Efforts in Mideast
(4) =
Palestinian legislative election, 2006 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(5) = New York Times 25 Nov 2005 , ‘EU critical of Israelis on East Jerusalem’,
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