Palestinian President Abbas pledges elections, reform at Fatah conference

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been unanimously re-elected leader of the Fatah movement.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has pledged to reform the Palestinian Authority (PA) at a Fatah party conference in the occupied West Bank, pledging to hold long-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections.Fatah kicked off the three-day Eighth General Conference in Ramallah on Thursday to elect a new central committee, its highest leadership body, for the first time in 10 years as it faces existential challenges in the wake of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Elections without sovereignty: What Palestine’s local vote representslist 2 of 3West Bank scepticism as Palestinians doubt local elections will change muchlist 3 of 3‘Solutions, not slogans’: Gaza holds first election in 21 yearsend of list“We renew our full commitment to continuing work on implementing all the reform measures we pledged,” Abbas said in an address. He also pledged to hold new elections, though he did not provide a timeline.Late on Thursday, Abbas was unanimously re-elected as leader of the Fatah movement and, by extension, will remain head of the central committee, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Fatah is the main party within the Palestinian Authority.Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are under mounting pressure from the United States, the European Union and Arab states to implement reforms and hold elections, amid widespread accusations of corruption and political stagnation, as well as the body’s declining legitimacy among Palestinians.Fatah’s central committee is expected to play a key role in the post-Abbas era.Key figures competing to replace Abbas include Jibril Rajoub, the committee’s secretary-general, and PA Deputy Hussein al-Sheikh.The conference comes as the Palestinian national movement faces some of its “most serious challenges in our struggle”, Rajoub told the AFP news agency in advance of the congress.