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Palestinian supporters of Islamic Hamas. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners January 22, 2006 |
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Less than a week before the Palestinian parliament election, the ruling Fatah Party is just as worried about a threat from within its ranks as about the fierce competition from the Islamic militant Hamas.
Dozens of Fatah activists, disgruntled after being kept off their party's slate of candidates, are running as independents, threatening to split the Fatah vote and further boosting Hamas' electoral prospects.
A new poll Friday indicated that Fatah, once the frontrunner, is slipping further and is now in a dead heat with Hamas. Yet there is no sign Fatah will pull together at the last minute. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' recent appeal to Fatah-linked independents to withdraw from the race has largely been ignored.
"Unfortunately, there is discipline in Hamas, but not in Fatah," lamented Ahmed Ghneim, a Fatah candidate.
In Wednesday's election, Palestinians will choose 132 parliament members - 66 from party lists and 66 in direct competition in 16 electoral districts.
It's the district races Fatah is worried about.
For example, in Salfit, in Samaria, a single parliament seat is contested by 11 candidates - one from Hamas, one from Fatah and nine independents, nearly all Fatah breakaways.
Ahmed Diek, a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, said he decided to run as an independent in the Salfit district because he felt he was cheated out of Fatah's nomination in flawed primaries.
"I saw a chance for myself in this district, so I decided to run," said Diek, but acknowledged that the Hamas candidate would probably win. If Fatah loses in Salfit and other districts, "it will be a good lesson for us in the future," he added.
In the 1996 parliament election, Fatah faced a similar problem, but then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat used bribes, perks and offers of government jobs to entice candidates to withdraw.
Abbas, although a Fatah veteran, has stayed clear of such tactics, his aides say. In a recent meeting with Fatah breakaways, he urged them to withdraw, but offered nothing in return. Abbas has told confidants he was shocked to discover the extent of infighting in his party during the campaign.
Of 80 independents with Fatah ties, only 30 have pulled out of the race, said Jamal Muhaisen, a Fatah campaign coordinator. "Internal polls show that none of these 80 have a chance to win," he said. "The only thing they would do is to divide Fatah's votes and serve Hamas."
Fatah's party slate is also problematic. It includes at least two vigilante gunmen widely feared in their towns and several party oldtimers who appear to have fallen out of favor with the rank-and-file.
No. 12 on Fatah's list is gunman Jamal Abu Rob, who calls himself Hitler and last year executed a suspected informer for Israel in a West Bank square, in front of a large crowd.
Abbas put together the list after weeks of wrangling with the party's restless young guard, led by Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti. At one point, Barghouti and his followers split and formed their own slate, but then returned to Fatah after Abbas offered them a better ranking.
Barghouti now leads the Fatah list, but several oldtimers, including Planning Minister Nabil Shaath and outgoing Welfare Minister Intissar al-Wazir, retained high slots.
Fatah's troubles are reflected in the polls.
The group has been sliding steadily, and on Friday was virtually deadlocked with Hamas for the first time - 32.3 percent for Fatah and 30.2 percent for Hamas, according to a survey among 1,000 voters by the independent Jerusalem Media and Communications Center. The poll had an error margin of 3.5 percentage points.
Pollster Nader Said, from Judea's Bir Zeit University, said Fatah should have chosen its candidates more carefully.
"Fatah's list is made up of the worst of both generations in Fatah," he said. "And it is the worst of all the lists. Some of them (candidates) are accused of killing and blackmailing ... and others are accused of being behind chaos or corruption."
"This serves Hamas' interests," the pollster said. "Hamas was smarter than Fatah. It has chosen clean people."
The AP contributed to this report.
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