Barghouti to head united Fatah list
Officials in Palestinian Authority’s ruling party engage in intense contacts to unite two Fatah lists under leadership of jailed Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti, Ynet learns; official announcement expected soon
An official announcement regarding the makeup of the united list is expected in the coming hours or on Friday. The list will be headed by Barghouti, currently jailed in Israel, with more spots given to Fatah young guard members at the expense of more veteran figures, and particularly former ministers suspected of corruption.
Fatah officials hope the united list would allow the movement to recover and enable Palestinian elections to be held on schedule, in late January.
Last Wednesday, Fatah officials submitted two lists ahead of the elections. The first, official Fatah list was headed by Barghouti, but a breakaway faction that split from Fatah was also headed by the jailed Tanzim leader. The second list included younger Fatah figures such as Muhammad Dahlan and Jibril Rajoub.
Legal obstacles
Last minute efforts to bridge the gaps within Fatah were fueled by fears that strife within the ruling party would play to the advantage of Hamas, with recent results of local elections showing the Fatah is losing ground to the Islamic party.
Wednesday’s visit to Ramallah by Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman was a last ditch effort to reach a compromise that would prevent a split.
Pressure on Fatah’s split leadership mounted with the decision by party activists to boycott the election campaign should the sides fail to reach a compromise and unify ranks.
Fatah’s Youth Union, “al-Shabiba”, announced that its activists would not campaign for the party in the elections, accusing the leadership of drawing a list of parliamentary candidates that does not represent the bulk of Fatah supporters.
Meanwhile, senior PA and Fatah officials and Central Elections Committee heads are currently meeting in a bid to find a legal solution to an election law that states that two lists already presented cannot merge prior to elections.
Fatah members are trying to find a way to deal with the problem, but if no solution is found the movement may appeal to the committee to request it consider extending the deadline for registering party lists for the upcoming elections.
This move would enable Fatah to submit an updated and united list, instead of the two lists it submitted earlier.
Fatah is expected to base its appeal on the face the Committee decided to close a number of voting stations in the Gaza Strip and West BAnk for one day following several attacks.
Fatah will now claim claim that closing the stations for that day denotes that one extra day is still owed to the parties to submit their lists.
