Fatah suffers from internal chaos, says former official

A former member of the Fatah Central Committee said on Monday that the movement is suffering from internal chaos, and municipal elections suffered from a “major legal flaw,” Al-Resalah has reported.

Nasser Al-Qudwa heads the National Democratic Forum. “Palestinian law does not allow elections to be held in two stages unless it is absolutely necessary,” he explained. “What happened was that they considered it normal to divide the elections. This is a major legal flaw.”

Al-Qudwa stressed that presidential, parliamentarian and municipal elections should have taken place together, and not just the latter. He reminded everyone that the presidential and parliamentarian elections were “postponed” by Palestinian Authority and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas without giving a new date or deadline for them to be held.

The former senior PA and Fatah official said that the elections were held “under strange conditions that ignored the political and factional priorities.” He claimed that Fatah, which only won one third of the seats up for grabs, lost the election. However, he did not regard this as a “real victory” for the independent lists, as he claimed that the Ministry of Local Governance is able to “choke” any municipality that walks on an independent track.

“In the light of the internal chaos and the absence of unity, clear political vision and negligence of the internal charter, the loss was not surprising,” explained Al-Qudwa. “None of what is happening inside the movement can be justified.”

The Palestinians, he said, must face the reality that there will be no parliamentary or presidential elections. “What happened last year was that the elections were postponed due to unexpected opposition. We are back to the bitter truth that the ruling party will never allow the [national] elections to be held.”

READ: Palestine’s Fatah to lose municipal elections, says official