Poll snub for Palestinian president

Published on 22/10/2012 00:53

Embattled Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suffered a fresh setback yesterday as results of the West Bank municipal elections showed voters snubbing his Fatah movement in five of the 11 main towns of the Israeli-occupied territory.

However, the newly elected mayor of the largest of these cities, Ghassan Shakaa, who led a list of Fatah breakaways in Nablus that routed Fatah’s official list, was quick to proclaim his loyalty to Mr Abbas.

“After the election we are in the same boat with Abu Mazen,” he told The Scotsman, using the president’s nickname. “After forty-five years we cannot say we are not Fatah.”

Still, the sense was that with breakaway lists also prevailing in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, Jenin and Tubas, Fatah was suffering more of the same fractiousness that contributed to its historic defeat at the hands of the militant Islamic Hamas movement in 2006.

That was when Mr Abbas failed to impose party discipline and many Fatah candidates ran as independents and split the secular nationalist vote. Hamas boycotted Saturday’s polling on the grounds that its activists would face arrest from Israel or the Palestinian Authority if they ran as candidates.

“I don’t think Abu Mazen can be satisfied with these results”’ said Talal Awkal, a columnist for the pro-Abbas al-Ayyam newspaper.