[1] Under pressure from the international community and from within his own party, Fatah, Arafat appointed a Prime Minister (PM) on 19 March 2003.
[2][3] Accordingly, the Basic Law was amended the day before and the political system was transformed into a semi-presidential one, meaning that President and PM were collectively responsible to the PLC.
Article III.3 of the Oslo II Accord determines: The Basic Law (the first version originally passed in 1997, but only ratified by President Yasser Arafat in 2002) refers to the interim period as defined in the Oslo Accords, although the interim period had already ended.
9, also issued on 13 August 2005, which additionally stipulates that the secret and free direct elections of President and Council members shall be held simultaneously.
[9] The 2005 Amended Basic Law was promulgated on 13 August 2005 by Mahmoud Abbas in his capacity of Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and of President of the Palestinian National Authority.
[9] In July 2008, the Ramallah-based "Fatwa and Legislation Office" issued a legal opinion on the presidential term of Mahmoud Abbas.
[12] Since the June 2007 split of the Palestinian administration there was also a competitive Fatwa and Legislation Office based in Gaza, the opinion was challenged.
They argued that the Basic Law overturns the Elections Law, and that PLC Speaker Aziz Dweik is the interim president with deputy PLC Speaker Ahmad Bahar being the legal acting president as the former was imprisoned in Israel.
[13] The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights held the view that the issue should be judged by the Constitutional Court, but did not expect that Hamas would recognize the Ramallah-based institution.
The PCHR warned for two competitive presidents and as elections were under the present circumstances impossible anyway, it saw no alternative for dialogue between the parties.
[5] As upon the establishment of the Palestinian Authority there had not been held presidential elections, Yasser Arafat as Chairman of the PLO and as the man who negotiated the Oslo Accords, became as a matter of course the first Ra'ees or President of the Palestinian National Authority on 5 July 1994, upon the formal inauguration of the governing body.
[17] The Arabic term was used in the English text of the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, part of the Oslo accords which established the PNA.
[8][18] A letter delivered from (PLO Chairman) Yasser Arafat to the then Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, as part of the Gaza-Jericho agreement stated that "When Chairman Arafat enters the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area, he will use the title 'Chairman (Ra'ees in Arabic) of the Palestinian Authority' or 'Chairman of the PLO', and will not use the title 'President of Palestine.
'"[19] In practice, when referring to the ra'ees in English documents and statements, the PNA uses the term "president", whereas Israel uses "chairman".
News releases from its embassy in Israel refer to the PNA "chairman"; press briefings in Washington use "president"; both occasionally avoid the issue with "Palestinian leader".