Ramallah, August 11: Early unofficial results of internal elections in Fatah, the largest Palestinian political faction, has injected its leadership with new blood, according to observers monitoring the counting of votes early Tuesday.
While Fatah, after a week of meetings and two days of elections, has kept some of its old guard in its highest decision-making body, the new 21-member Central Committee included such names as imprisoned Fatah West Bank leader Marwan Barghouti, along with the controversial Muhammad Dahlan, Jibril Rajoub and Tawfik Tirawi, three former heads of security forces.
Muhammad Ghneim, one of the founders of the Fatah movement along with the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and who opposed the Oslo peace process, received the highest number of votes, after 90 per cent of the ballots were counted, said the observers.
Ghneim returned home two weeks ago to participate in Fatah’s sixth conference, held in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. He was already a member of its Central Committee.
Other names included chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and former Palestinian foreign minister and UN mission observer Naser al-Qidwa.
The initial list included 14 new members and four from the so-called “old guard.” The most prominent Central Committee member who did not make the list was Ahmad Qureia, who negotiated the Oslo agreement and served as speaker of the Palestinian parliament since the first elections in 1996, until he became prime minister of the Palestinian government in 2004.
President Mahmoud Abbas was named as head of the Fatah movement in a show of hands vote earlier during the conference deliberations.
Final results were expected to be announced later Tuesday after the conclusion the counting for the 120-member Fatah Revolutionary Council, the second highest decision-making body in Fatah.
–Agencies