Palestinian election officials on Sunday announced that 36 lists had been approved to run in next month's legislative elections, the first in 15 years.
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The vote, which precedes a presidential election called for July 31, is part of an effort by the dominant Palestinian movements – secular Fatah and Islamist Hamas – to boost international support for Palestinian governance.
Groups had until Wednesday to submit their lists for the May 22 legislative election.
Individual names on each list are due to be published Tuesday.
President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, which controls the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, faces challenges from dissident factions including the Freedom party, led by Nasser al-Kidwa, a nephew of the late Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat.
Freedom has been endorsed by Marwan Barghouti, a popular figure among Palestinians who is currently serving multiple life sentences in an Israeli prison for masterminding several deadly terror attacks during the Second Intifada.
Barghouti appears to have opted to pass on a run for the legislative elections to have the option of running for PA president in July.
The cancellation of a meeting between Barghouti and Palestinian Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh raised allies of Barghouti's suspicions Ramallah was looking to prevent him from influencing the Fatah list ahead of the registration deadline. These suspicions aligned with the interests of al-Kidwa, who was kicked out of the Fatah movement after establishing an independent list. Al-Kidwa now heads the Freedom list, and Barghouti's wife Fadwa is No. 2 on the list.
Abbas' former Gaza security chief, Mohammed Dahlan, currently in exile in Abu Dhabi, is also backing a list of challengers in The Future party headed by his confidante Samir al-Mashharawi. Dahlan was ousted following a falling-out with Abbas and is unable to run in the elections.
Former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, an ex-World Bank official with a track record of fighting corruption, is running as the head of the "Together We Can" party.
Fatah's list is headed by the head of its central committee, Mahmoud Al-Alul. Fatah Secretary-General Jibril Rajoub is second on the list.
In effect, three Fatah parties will be running against Hamas, a scenario that could see a repeat of the 2006 elections in which the Gazan terrorist group took 74 of the parliament's 132 seats.
Concerns over a Hamas victory led al-Sheikh to insinuate, Sunday, that the elections would not be held without the participation of east Jerusalem's residents, something that would require Israeli approval as Jerusalem has banned all Palestinian political activity in its capital. He insisted the move was important to the election process and was not an excuse to prevent elections from being held.
In an interview with Turkey's Anadolu Agency, Hamas' political leader chief Ismail Haniyeh said that even if the terrorist organization's Al-Quds Is Our Destiny slate were to win the election, it would still establish a unity government with Fatah.
"Hamas' face is to partnership and not to a takeover of the political system," he claimed.
Over the weekend, a Fatah source told Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar the central committee was having a hard time finding candidates that would satisfy various elements in the PA, something the media outlet said could work in Barghouti's and Dahlan's favor.
According to the report, committee members are interested in ousting Barghouti from Fatah. Opponents of the move argue such a move could deepen the rift in Palestinian society and make Fatah even less popular than it is today.
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