By Ali Sawafta and Rami Ayyub
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has run for office for the first time in fifteen years, fighting a growing rift in his powerful Fatah party that poses a new threat to his rule. on Palestinian politics.
A breakaway offer by one of Abbas’ allies has heightened speculation that he may cancel a presidential vote scheduled for July, for fear of a possible challenge by Marwan Barghouti, a popular Palestinian leader led by Israel has been jailed.
Abbas’ office denies any plans to postpone or scrap the presidential vote.
Barghouti, now 61, was a driving force in the Palestinian uprising in the period 2000-2005 in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. He was sentenced by an Israeli court to life in prison in 2004 after being convicted of several deadly attacks on Israelis by Palestinian militants. Barghouti has always denied the charges.
Abbas, 85, has been ruling the Palestinian Authority for more than a decade in areas from the West Bank to the West Bank. In January, he announced presidential and legislative ballots – a move seen primarily as a response to domestic and Western criticism of the democratic legitimacy of his presidency.
In addition, Nasser al-Qudwa, a longtime member of Fatah’s top central committee, announced last week that he would draw up a new list in May that would run separately from Fatah in the legislative election.
“(Palestinians) fed up with the current situation … internal behavior or misconduct, things like the absence of the rule of law, the absence of equality, the absence of justice,” Qudwa, a cousin of the late Fatah founder and The leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat, told Reuters.
It is rare for leaders of the 19-member Central Committee to break up with Abbas in public.
Qudwa, 67, said he hoped his list would be led by Barghouti, a Fatah leader who has long drifted as a potential successor to Abbas.
Barghouti did not say whether he would join the list or run for president. He and his lawyer rejected a request to question him. Opinion polls suggest he would comfortably win against Abbas and leaders of Hamas, the Islamic movement that took control of Gaza from Fatah in 2007.
Aid to Abbas points out that the split with Hamas has contributed to the long delay in holding new elections.
FATAH ONSKIL
Abbas tried to resolve the disagreement by sending a loyalist to visit Barghouti in prison and by preaching unity to missionaries after Qudwa announced his new list.
“Fatah will unite with strength and power in the forthcoming democratic election to strengthen democracy, uphold the national liberation project and protect Palestinian national unity,” Hussein al-Sheikh, Abbas’ civilian minister, wrote on Facebook.
Palestinian officials have privately questioned how Barghouti would contest the election from prison and what would happen if he won. Any move to free him is likely to ignite a political firestorm in Israel.
Two Western diplomats have told Reuters that European countries are urging Abbas not to withdraw his election promise.
“There are concerns that he (Abbas) may see a middle ground to allow the legislative election to proceed, but postpone or cancel the presidential election,” one of them said.
Abbas is due to convene a meeting of Fatah’s central committee on Monday, where he is expected to formally punish Qudwa.
Qudwa told Reuters he did not plan to attend meetings.
It was not immediately clear how much support Qudwa’s list would receive. About 250 Palestinians joined a Zoom conference he held last week to announce the move.
The Palestinians’ last parliamentary vote, in 2006, led to a surprise victory by Fatah’s biggest rival, Hamas. This created a rift that deepened when the Islamic group withdrew military control of Gaza from the Fatah-led PA two years after Israel withdrew settlers and soldiers from the area.
The election is part of a broader push for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, which is seen as essential to building broad support for any future state talks with Israel that have been frozen since 2014.
Some lists for the legal vote must appear by March 20.
(Written by Rami Ayyub; Edited by Jeffrey Heller and Mark Heinrich)