Palestinian President Abbas pledges elections, reform at Fatah conference

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has pledged to reform the Palestinian Authority (PA) at a Fatah party conference in the occupied West Bank, pledging to hold long-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections.

Fatah kicked off the three-day Eighth General Conference in Ramallah on Thursday to elect a new central committee, its highest leadership body, for the first time in 10 years as it faces existential challenges in the wake of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“We renew our full commitment to continuing work on implementing all the reform measures we pledged,” Abbas said in an address. He also pledged to hold new elections, though he did not provide a timeline.

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

Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are under mounting pressure from the United States, the European Union and Arab states to implement reforms and hold elections, amid widespread accusations of corruption and political stagnation, as well as the body’s declining legitimacy among Palestinians.

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

Key figures competing to replace Abbas include Jibril Rajoub, the committee’s secretary-general, and PA Deputy Hussein al-Sheikh.

The conference comes as the Palestinian national movement faces some of its “most serious challenges in our struggle”, Rajoub told the AFP news agency in advance of the congress.

He expressed hope that the conference, repeatedly delayed, would contribute to “ensuring and protecting the establishment of a Palestinian state on the world’s agenda and protecting the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people”.

‘Putting the Palestinian house in order’

Fatah has historically been the main component of the PLO, which includes most Palestinian factions, but excludes Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

In recent decades, Fatah’s popularity and influence have dwindled amid internal divisions and growing public frustration over the stagnation of the Israel-Palestine peace process.

This led to a surge in support for rival Hamas, which won 2006 legislative elections in the occupied West Bank, before then expelling Fatah from Gaza almost entirely after a bout of factional fighting.

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

Rajoub maintained that this week’s conference was a first step towards “putting the Palestinian house in order, to build a partner for establishing a [Palestinian] state”.

The conference is being attended by approximately 2,580 Fatah members, with about 1,600 in Ramallah, 400 in Gaza and Cairo respectively, and 200 in Beirut.

They are expected to elect 18 representatives to the central committee and 80 to the movement’s parliament, known as the revolutionary council.

Despite repeated declarations from the movement that it is working as a “united front”, major figures were absent from Thursday’s conference, notably Nasser al-Qudwa, a nephew of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Al-Qudwa said he was boycotting the gathering, labelling it “illegitimate”.

Meanwhile, the president’s eldest son, Yasser Abbas, is on the ballot to join the central committee, having risen in prominence in recent years after he was named the president’s special representative, despite largely residing in Canada.