Fatah elects new leadership

Amid strong competition

WEST BANK: Members of the sixth congress of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fatah party, which convene in the West Bank city of Bethlehem since Tuesday, are scheduled to elect on Sunday a new party leadership amid strong competition.

Around 2,355 congress members will elect 18 members for the central committee and 120 members for the revolutionary council, two highest leading bodies of Fatah.

According to the congress leadership, 96 candidates are running for the central committee membership while 617 candidates are running for the revolutionary council.

These candidates are a mixture of Fatah old guards and the young generation of the group' s leaders.

The congress was scheduled to close on Thursday, but it was extended for three more days due to intensive debates and discussions.

Right after the members of the two highest bodies are elected, the agendas and the recommendations of the 18 different committees of the congress will be approved by the members before the congress closes on Monday evening.

At their first meeting of the two highest bodies, the 18 central committee members will nominate three more members and the 80 elected revolutionary council members will nominate 40 more members.

The central committee members will be 21 and the revolutionary council members will be 120.

The list of the candidates for the new central committee didn't include 5 members of the current central committees.

Several candidates withdrew from the list and decided not to run, said a well-informed source in the congress, adding that they decided to give an opportunity to new young leaders.

"These withdrawals were a response to President Abbas request," the source told Xinhua on telephone, "the aim was to lessen the number of candidates in order to let other new faces and figures represented in the movement's leadership."

Bethlehem, Xinhua