Palestine’s Fatah to lose municipal elections, says official

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (2nd R) and Secretary of the Revolutionary Council of the Fatah movement, Majed Al Fityani (2nd L) attend a Revolutionary Council Meeting of Fatah Movement in Ramallah, West Bank on 25 May, 2017 [Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency]

The Palestinian Authority will lose the municipal elections, a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, Fakhri Al-Barghouti, announced yesterday, warning that the movement was heading “towards the abyss.”

“In light of its current reality, Fatah is in an unimaginable situation, and if we delay reform, we will pay the price more and more,” Al-Barghouti told Al-Resalah.

He pointed out that the recent results of the Bethlehem University elections were a “preliminary introduction to the collapse that Fatah will suffer from.”

Barghouti added that the current Fatah leadership was “fully responsible for what it has been experiencing,” warning that the PA was leading the movement toward a “collapse.”

Local elections are slated in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, across 50 local councils.

The Popular Front was recently reported to have won 17 seats in the Bethlehem University, compared to 14 seats for Fatah.

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