Fatah re-elects Mahmoud Abbas

[webfact]

Fatah re-elects Mahmoud Abbas

Catherine Hardy

 

 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has opened the first congress of his Fatah party for seven years.

 

An estimated 1,300 delegates gathered to elect new leaders and discuss longer-term policy.

 

“You today, in these historic times, are living the writing of modern history,” Abbassaid as he opened the meeting.

 

He praised Fatah’s founders and the “martyrs who died along the path towards freedom and independence”.

 

After his short opening address, Abbas was nominated to be re-elected as head of Fatah and approved by acclamation.

 

A challenging time

 

The meeting comes at a challenging time for Abbas, in the wake of Donald Trump’s election in the United States.

Some say this could be seen as giving a boost to Israel’s settlement-building on occupied land the Palestinians seek for their own state.

 

Repeated delays

 

The congress was supposed to be held two years ago, but political divisions, both within the party and between Fatah and the rival Islamist Hamas movement, led to repeated delays before Abbas fixed the date only a couple of months ago.

 

The meeting is scheduled to last five days.

 

It will elect new faces to Fatah’s 21-member central committee, the party’s top decision-making body.

 

It will also choose a new 80-person revolutionary council, a quasi-parliament.
 

Time for fresh elections?

 

Abbas has been in power for 11 years.

 

He was elected to power in 2005 and the last parliamentary vote was in 2006.

 

Some think it is time for him to nominate a successor and call new elections.

 

Around a third of the members of the central committee are expected to change as a result of the congress.

 

Abbas will still be chairman of Fatah and the Palestinian umbrella movement, the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

 

 

-- © Copyright Euronews 2016-11-30

[coma]

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Abbas has been in power for 11 years.

 

He was elected to power in 2005 and the last parliamentary vote was in 2006.

 

Some think it is time for him to nominate a successor and call new elections.

 

Yes. He has outdone Yasser by a year. Time to move on old mate. A change to somebody a little younger and with more intestinal fortitude is what is needed.

[Ulysses G.]

He is probably best of some very bad choices.

[Morch]

6 hours ago, coma said:

 

 

Yes. He has outdone Yasser by a year. Time to move on old mate. A change to somebody a little younger and with more intestinal fortitude is what is needed.

 

Move over for whom, though?

The Palestinians are already divided among themselves when it comes to the Fatah/Hamas split. Abbas, lack of charisma and all, is pretty much the only thing holding things together. Sort of. If he steps down without a clear successor emerging, the probable result would be further Fatah weakening, and by extension, the Palestinian Authority in general.

 

This might be a good outcome for those craving "action", as various factions are bound to "prove" their dedication to the cause by violent means. But for the Palestinian people fragmentation is tantamount to shelving any hopes for a better future.