Palestinian Fatah votes in new blood

JERUSALEM, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- The Palestinian Fatah party has chosen younger leaders in the party's first internal election in 20 years, officials said.

The vote represented a major setback to senior members, CNN reported Tuesday.

Party members chose among 18 candidates seeking seats on the Central Committee, the party's highest decision-making body, the network said.

National Public Radio reported 14 of the seats went to new members, four to those in the "old guard."

Those voted out apparently included the former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei, a top member of Fatah in the West Bank.

Early results also showed voters favored imprisoned politician and militant leader Marwan Barghouti, CNN said. Barghouti is serving life sentences in an Israeli prison, accused of killing an Israeli civilian and attacking Israeli soldiers.

Also leading were top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, former Palestinian security adviser Jibril Rajoub and Nasser al-Kidwa, the former Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations and nephew of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

"People want new faces, a new spirit with more energy and with more strength because we have a very long struggle ahead," Fayez al-Saka, a Fatah member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, told CNN in Bethlehem.

Fatah is led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Women expressed outrage that most of the seats went to males, Ynetnews.com reported.