Hamas’s Change and Reform list won 74 of the 132 seats in the January 25, 2006 Legislative Council election; Fatah won 45. The Central Elections Commission recorded 440,409 votes, or 44.45%, for Change and Reform on the party list. The mixed electoral system combined proportional party-list seats and district contests, so its seat majority did not mean the list had received most votes cast nationwide. The Commission’s final results list seats by party, and its official party-list tally gives vote totals and percentages.
From election to failed power-sharing
Hamas formed a government in March 2006. The Quartet—the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia—set conditions for engagement with a Hamas-led government: renounce violence, recognize Israel, and accept previous agreements and obligations. Hamas did not satisfy those conditions. Fatah and Hamas later formed a unity government under the February 2007 Mecca Agreement, but the rival movements did not establish a shared security command.
Armed clashes intensified in June. A UN Human Rights Council fact-finding report describes Hamas’s military wing and Executive Force taking control of Gaza between June 9 and 15, including the capture of security headquarters and strategic sites. The report also records killings, mistreatment of detainees and attacks on institutions during the fighting. These events were a forceful takeover of government installations, not an ordinary transfer of authority after an election. The UN fact-finding report details the sequence and documented abuses.
How two administrations began
On June 14, President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s government, declared an emergency and appointed Salam Fayyad to lead an emergency administration. Hamas rejected that government and retained control of Gaza. The Fatah-led PA (PA) continued operating in parts of Judea and Samaria, while Hamas maintained its own administration and security forces in Gaza.
The split lasted beyond the emergency decrees. In 2017, the UN humanitarian office still described separate PA and Hamas authorities and documented the administrative effects, including divided civil-service payrolls and unclear reporting lines. OCHA’s June 2017 account gives a dated snapshot of those consequences. The present institutional comparison is set out in Hamas in Gaza and the PA in Judea and Samaria.