Palestinian President Abbas has promised elections, change at the meeting of Fatah | Fatah news

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was re-elected as the leader of the Fatah movement.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has pledged to replace the Palestinian Authority (PA) at a meeting of the Fatah party in the occupied West Bank, pledging to hold long-delayed elections.

Fatah started three days Eighth General Assembly in Ramallah on Thursday to elect a new central committee, its highest governing body, for the first time in 10 years as it faces the ongoing crisis of Israel’s war on Gaza.

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“We are reiterating our commitment to continue working to fulfill all our commitments,” Abbas said in a speech. He also promised to hold new elections, although he did not give a timeline.

Late on Thursday, Abbas was re-elected as the leader of Fatah and, in addition, will remain the head of the central committee, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency. Fatah is the main party within the Palestinian Authority.

Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are under intense pressure from the United States, the European Union and Arab countries to implement reforms and hold elections, amid widespread accusations of corruption and political instability, as well as declining legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority.

Fatah’s central committee is expected to play a major role in the Abbas era.

Competing to replace Abbas are Jibril Rajoub, the committee’s secretary general, and PA deputy Hussein al-Sheikh.

The meeting comes at a time when the Palestinian Authority is facing “the most difficult time in our war”, Rajoub told AFP ahead of the meeting.

He expressed his hope that the meeting, which has been repeatedly delayed, will help “to ensure and protect the establishment of the Palestinian state in the international arena and to protect the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people”.

‘Fixing a Palestinian home’

Fatah is historically a major part of the PLO, which includes many Palestinian factions, but excludes Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

In recent years, Fatah’s popularity and influence have increased it has decreased amid internal divisions and growing frustration over the stalling of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

This led to an increase in support for rival Hamas, which won the 2006 elections in the occupied West Bank, before ousting Fatah from Gaza almost immediately after sectarian fighting.

The PA, which includes Fatah, has been touted as a natural partner in rebuilding and running Gaza after Israel’s war with Hamas in the camp – although Israel strongly opposes the idea.

Rajoub stressed that this week’s meeting is the first step in “establishing a Palestinian home, building a partnership to establish a Palestinian state”.

The meeting is attended by about 2,580 members of Fatah, about 1,600 in Ramallah, 400 in Gaza and Cairo respectively, and 200 in Beirut.

They are expected to elect 18 delegates to the executive committee and 80 to the parliament of the organization known as the revolutionary council.

Despite the fact that the group has repeatedly announced that it is working as “united”, key figures were absent from Thursday’s meeting, especially Nasser al-Qudwa, the nephew of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Al-Qudwa said he was boycotting the meeting, calling it “illegal”.

Meanwhile, the president’s eldest son, Yasser Abbas, is on the ballot to join the executive committee, having risen to prominence in recent years after being appointed as the president’s special envoy, even though he lives in Canada.