Fatah Elects New Central Committee in Ramallah as Marwan Barghouti Tops Vote List

Fatah concluded its Eighth General Conference in Ramallah on Saturday by electing a new Central Committee, with the vote taking place in an atmosphere described as charged with internal divisions and unprecedented political pressures.

The conference drew participation from about 2,580 Fatah members distributed between Ramallah, Gaza, Cairo, and Beirut, and preliminary results released in the early hours of Sunday showed Marwan Barghouti, an inmate held by Israel since 2002, topped the list of winners with the highest number of votes.

Al Jazeera

The results list also included Majed Faraj, Jibril Rajoub, Hussein al-Sheikh, Dr. Leila Ghannam, Mahmoud Aloul, Tawfiq Tirawi, Yasser Abbas, Taysir Bardoni, Zakariya Zubeidi, Ahmed Abu Holi, Ahmed Halas, Adnan Ghaith, Mousa Abu Zaid, Dalal Salama, Eyad Saffi, and Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh.

In parallel, the movement re-elected Mahmoud Abbas as its president at the outset of the conference on Thursday, with Abbas announcing that "2026 is the year of democracy" and linking the conference to planned National Council elections to be held in November.

Yasser Abbas, the second son of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, won a seat on Fatah’s Central Committee in elections held on Saturday as the movement’s general congress concluded in Ramallah, Gaza, Cairo, and Beirut.

Initial results released on Sunday showed Marwan Barghouti, the imprisoned leader who has been in Israeli jails since 2002, retained his seat on the Central Committee after receiving the highest votes.

Al Jazeera

The conference administration said turnout reached 94.64 percent after the ballots of 2,507 members, with 59 candidates competing for 18 seats on the Central Committee and 450 candidates for 80 seats on the Revolutionary Council.

France 24 said the Central Committee elections yielded Yasser Abbas alongside the continuation of several leaders in their posts, while it also reported that Marwan Barghouti topped the vote according to the initially announced results.

WAFA reported that the Fatah Central Committee discussed Israeli measures in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, and highlighted settler terrorism, land confiscations, repeated incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque, daily detentions, and the withholding of Palestinian tax revenues.

The committee called for the swift completion of the second phase related to the Gaza Strip and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territory, and it adopted decisions to "stop the ongoing bloodbath in Gaza" while advancing reconstruction efforts.

WAFA also said the committee reviewed national obligations tied to general elections scheduled for November 1, 2026, including legislative elections in accordance with the Basic Law until a constitution is adopted, and the completion of the formation of the Palestinian National Council under the regulations of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

In the same context of elections and governance after the war, the conference reporting described calls for reforms within the Palestinian Authority as a prelude to handing over governance of Gaza after the war, and it linked that reform request to U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for peace in the Gaza Strip.