Jailed Fatah terrorist Marwan Barghouti received the highest number of votes in the faction’s first internal election since 2016, according to preliminary results seen by AFP on Sunday.
The Fatah elections, held over the course of three days in Judea and Samaria, the Gaza Strip, Cairo and Beirut, drew 2,507 voters, resulting in a turnout of 94.64%, the outlet said.
Fifty-nine candidates competed for 18 seats on the Central Committee, Fatah’s most powerful body.
In addition to Barghouti, who retained his seat on the Central Committee, Fatah members for the first time elected terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi, a former commander in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades who was released from Israeli prison in 2025 as part of the ceasefire deal with Hamas.
Another newcomer elected to the body was Palestinian-Canadian businessman Yasser Abbas, 64, son of longtime Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Palestinian Football Association head Jibril Rajoub was re-elected as secretary-general of the committee, retaining the post he has held since 2017. P.A. deputy head Hussein al-Sheikh, Fatah deputy leader Mahmoud al-Aloul and former P.A. intelligence chief Tawfiq Tirawi also retained their seats.
In another vote, for which counting was still underway on Sunday, 450 candidates competed for 80 seats on Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, the faction’s internal parliament.
The Fatah congress opened on May 14, with Abbas being re-elected as head of the movement.
“The achievements we have made are thanks to the immense sacrifices made by our leaders, martyrs, prisoners and all the male and female freedom fighters who paved the way to freedom and independence with their blood,” the nonagenarian Fatah leader said in his opening remarks.
“They have made sacrifices under the most difficult circumstances, foremost among them the great leader Marwan Barghouti, and we will not rest until they are freed from the occupation’s prisons,” continued Abbas.
Barghouti, 66, one of the most notorious figures of the Second Intifada, was convicted in 2002 for masterminding terrorist attacks against Israelis and foreign nationals. He was sentenced to five life terms plus 40 years.
According to an October poll by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, Barghouti would win in a landslide if a vote for Abbas’s position was held today.
Although Barghouti’s name has periodically surfaced during prisoner-exchange negotiations, successive Israeli governments have refused to release him, citing a risk that he could reignite mass violence.
