Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday pledged to press ahead with reforms within the Palestinian Authority, saying he was prepared to hold long-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections.
Abbas’s Fatah party began a three-day conference 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 the Gaza war.
“We renew our full commitment to continuing work on implementing all the reform measures we pledged… We are ready to hold presidential and legislative elections,” Abbas said in an address to the congress, though he did not provide a timeline for the vote, AFP reported.
“The Palestinian people are the only people in the world living under occupation. Holding our conference today on our homeland’s soil confirms our determination to continue on the democratic path and open the way for youth and women,” the 90-year-old veteran leader said.
Fatah’s central committee is expected to play a key role in the post-Abbas era, with many observers wondering whether he might finally step down after more than two decades at the helm, despite the lack of a clear successor.
The conference comes as the Palestinian national movement faces some of its “most serious challenges in our struggle”, Jibril Rajoub, the current secretary general of the committee, told AFP ahead of the congress.
He expressed hope that the conference, repeatedly delayed, would contribute to “ensuring and protecting the establishment of a Palestinian state on the world’s agenda and protecting the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people”.
Key figures competing to replace Abbas include Rajoub and PA deputy Hussein al-Sheikh.
Meanwhile, the president’s eldest son, Yasser Abbas, is on the ballot to join the central committee, having risen in prominence over recent years after he was named the president’s special representative despite largely residing in Canada.