General Elections
The European Union observed the general elections in Palestinian occupied territory in January 1996.
The 1996 elections took place in a moment of optimism in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and many Palestinians believed that the government they were electing would be the first of an independent Palestinian state. However, in the ensuing months and years, Israelis and Palestinians failed to resolve their differences and come to a final status agreement, and an upswing in violence meant that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would continue. As a result of this instability, new presidential and legislative elections were not held until nearly a decade later.
This observation was one of the first decisions of EU Common Foreign and Security Policy after the establishment of the EU competence by the Maastricht Treaty.
Before 2000, election observations were deployed and formated on an ad hoc political basis. Precise criteria whether to deploy or not, as well as detailled working structure and methodology were defined in the EC Communication COM2000(199).
