RAMALLAH, December 3, 2016 (WAFA) – Elections for Fatah’s Central Committee, its decision-making body, and the Revolutionary Council kicked off Saturday morning in the Muqata, the presidential headquarters in Ramallah, according to senior Fatah officials.
Amin Maqboul, secretary general of the outgoing Revolutionary Council, told the official Voice of Palestine radio on Saturday that voting has started and is supposed to end in the afternoon.
After that, counting the votes will start and the final results will be announced on Sunday.
Nomination for the posts opened Saturday and closed hours later.
A total of 65 members of the seventh Fatah congress are competing for 18 seats in the Central Committee and 436 are running for 80 seats in the Revolutionary Council, according to conference executive director Munir Salameh.
While members can compete for the Central Committee’s 18 seats, the committee actually has 23 members. In addition to the 18 elected seats, four will be later added by consensus among the committee’s elected members, who will include a woman if one was not elected, a Christian and a security member.
The 23rd seat is occupied by the chairman of the movement, President Mahmoud Abbas, who was re-elected by consensus on Tuesday, the first day of the five-day conference.
In addition to the 23 members of the Central Committee, the movement approved Friday a proposal by Abbas to name three of the founding members as honorary, non-voting members. They include Farouq Qaddoumi, Salim Zanoun and Abu Maher Ghneim.
As for the Revolutionary Council, 80 seats are up for grabs by the candidates but an additional 50 members from the security forces, who are not allowed to run in the elections, the diaspora and prisoners will be later named to the council to bring the total to 130 members.
M.K.
