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Palestinians Give Fatah The Nod in Local Vote
Supporters of the Fatah movement celebrate in Rafah after their party's unofficial victory in local elections there.
(By Emilio Morenatti -- Associated Press)
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Fatah has been handicapped by bitter internal fighting between leaders from the old guard who spent much of their lives in exile with Arafat, and younger, reform-minded leaders who grew up in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and feel disenfranchised.
Those internal problems remained on full display Thursday in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, where 27 Fatah candidates apparently divided the vote, allowing Hamas to win six seats to Fatah's four. Five seats were won by other parties.
In contrast, Fatah was highly organized and disciplined in Rafah, the biggest Gaza town to hold an election.
The party's success in Rafah will likely give reformers more ammunition to demand that Fatah use primaries to select its candidates in the upcoming legislative elections.
"We've had internal problems, and now we want to elect everyone who represents us in the future in the legislative council and in every Fatah institution," said Abdallah Frangi, who leads the party's new voting mobilization office. "We want to rebuild everything inside our movement to build a new front against Hamas."
Correspondent Molly Moore in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
