Palestinian President's Son Elected to Fatah's Top Leadership Body
According to AFP, Yasser Abbas (64), a businessman who spends most of his time in Canada, secured a place on the central committee after being appointed around five years ago as his father’s “special representative”.
Meanwhile, imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti topped the provisional results by retaining his seat on the committee with the highest number of votes, according to figures seen by AFP.
In addition, Jibril Rajoub was re-elected as secretary general of the committee, maintaining a position he has held since 2017.
The Palestinian vice president, Hussein Al-Sheikh, Fatah deputy leader Mahmoud Al-Aloul, and former head of Palestinian intelligence, Tawfiq Tirawi, also retained their seats on the body.
Among the newcomers is Zakaria Zubeidi (50), a former commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, Fatah’s armed wing in the Jenin refugee camp, who was released from Israeli prison last year under a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas.
Two women also won seats, including Ramallah governor Laila Ghannam.
The three-day congress, held simultaneously in Ramallah, Gaza, Cairo and Beirut, drew 2,507 voters - a participation rate of 94.64 percent, organizers said.
A total of fifty-nine candidates competed for 18 seats on the central committee, while 450 candidates competed for 80 seats on the revolutionary council, the party’s parliament. The vote count for the council is still ongoing.
The congress opened on Thursday, with Abbas re-elected as head of the movement.
In his opening speech, Abbas pledged to continue reforms and hold long-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections.
Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are under increasing international pressure to implement reforms and hold elections, amid widespread allegations of corruption and political stagnation, which is eroding their legitimacy among Palestinians.
Fatah has historically been the dominant force within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which groups together most Palestinian factions but excludes the Islamist movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
In recent decades, Fatah’s popularity and influence have declined amid internal divisions and growing public frustration over the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
This disappointment has led to a surge in support for their rivals, Hamas, who made significant political gains in the occupied West Bank in the 2006 general elections, which they easily won, before subsequently ousting Fatah from the Gaza Strip almost completely after a series of inter-factional battles.