2006 Palestinian legislative election

25 January 2006
All 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council 67 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader % Seats ± Hamas Ismail Haniyeh 44.45 74 Fatah Farouk Kaddoumi 41.43 45 PFLP Ahmad Sa'adat 4.25 3 The Alternative Qais Abd al-Karim 2.92 2 Independent Palestine Mustafa Barghouti 2.72 2 Third Way Salam Fayyad 2.41 2 Independents – – 4 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Results by governorate
Prime Minister before Prime Minister after Ahmed Qurei Fatah Ismail Haniyeh Hamas

On 25 January 2006, Palestinians voted for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), the legislature of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). Without counting the 2005 municipal elections and the 9 January 2005 presidential election, this was the first election to the PLC since 1996; since then, elections had been delayed several times due to the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinian voters in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, were allowed to participate in the election.

Final results show that Hamas won the election with 74 seats. The ruling party, Fatah, only got 45, giving Hamas the majority of the 132 available seats and the chance to form a majority government on their own. Analysis of election results shows that the number of seats each party won agrees with their percentage of the vote for the 66 list seats. Hamas is overrepresented in the 66 district seats because it was nominated more strategically than Fatah and did not have to compete with third parties and independents for the same voters' support.

The Prime Minister, Ahmed Qurei, resigned, but at the request of President Mahmoud Abbas, remained as interim Prime Minister until February 19, when Hamas leader Ismail Haniya formed the new government. The Quartet threatened to cut funds to the Palestinian Authority following the elections.