A Palestinian electoral court has allowed on Monday Fateh movement to submit a unified list after the movement managed to merge rival lists of candidates for the January legislative elections.
The court allowed the elections registration to be reopened for additional six hours instead of the six hours which were lost after gunmen of Al Aqsa Brigades, the military wing of Fateh, broke into and closed elections registration center for six hours, one day before the registration was closed.
A source within Fateh movement reported that the court’s decision allows Fateh movement to present its candidates list, after the movement finalized preparing its list for the upcoming elections.
Nabil Shaath, member of Fateh’s Central Committee said earlier on Monday that the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas will put the “final touches” on the unified Fateh list.
Initially, Fateh presented to separate lists and registered them at the Central Elections Committee; the first list is the official Fateh list which included the Old Guard of the movement, headed by detainee Abu Ali Yatta, while the second list was presented by Fateh Young Guard, headed by the jailed legislator Marwan Barghouthi.
Meanwhile, Hamas movement said that she does not object to the decision of the court to reopen the registration process for six hours, adding that it its interested in the unity of Fateh.
The ruling of the electoral court was needed since the official deadline for registering candidates was December 14. After an appeal, the court said it would reopen registration for a further six hours.
Yet, it is not clear when the six hours will begin.
According to results of a poll conducted on Monday, Fateh might win more than 45% of the legislative seats if it runs united, while it would only get 21% if it runs split.
The poll gave Hamas, which is running for the first time in the legislative elections, 31% of the Palestinian public’s support and the most seats in parliament.
The poll was conducted by An-Najah University in the West Bank city of Nablus; it was conducted before the reunification of Fateh, and surveyed 1,361 people with a margin of error of three percentage points.
Israeli sources reported that the decision to merge the two Fateh lists was taken in order to weaken Hamas after its strong showings in the primaries.
