According to Qatari newspaper, Fatah official, who is serving 5 life sentences in an Israeli prison, will not run in the Palestinian parliament - but will compete with Abu Mazen for the post of chairman
Marwan Barghouti, in 2002
Photo:
AP
Marwan Barghouti, a senior Fatah official who is serving five life sentences and 40 years in Israeli prison, does not intend to run for the Palestinian parliament, but for the PA presidency, according to a report in the Qatari newspaper Al-Arabi al-Jadid.
According to the newspaper, which is based on Palestinian sources, Barghouti may support a list competing with Fatah, if it does not hold an internal democratic procedure. The sources also said that there is work on a list that will receive outside support from Barghouti's associates.
Fatah Revolutionary Council member Hatem 'Abd al-Qader, who is close to Barghouti, also revealed in a conversation with Palestinian media that the security prisoner intends to run for the PA chairmanship with Abu Mazen.
"We are waiting until after the legislative election to see what happens to him," al-Qader said.
According to him, what was recently published about Barghouti's meeting with the Palestinian Minister of Civil Affairs, Hussein a-Sheikh, is not true.
Al-Qader said Barghouti was in favor of a unified list, as long as the people on the list were democratically elected.
Apparently, the denial refers to reports in Israel of a proposal given to Barghouti for armor on the Fatah list.
A source close to Barghouti also explained that it is difficult to run for the Legislative Council and the position of chairman of the Palestinian Authority at the same time, when there is only a period of about two months between the deadlines.
In light of this, al-Qader said that it is not really possible to run in parallel, and Barghouti is not interested in running for the Legislative Council, even if he heads the Fatah list.
As you may recall, according to the presidential decrees issued by Abu Mazen, the parliamentary elections are expected to take place on May 22 and the presidential elections are scheduled for the end of July.