JERUSALEM, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Divisions in Fatah, the main Palestinian faction, have broken sharply into the open with the Palestinian president threatening to resign.
Mahmoud Abbas said would step down unless a rival slate of younger Fatah members for the Jan. 25 legislative elections was withdrawn, Palestinian officials said.
The apparent split in Fatah is likely to hurt its performance and help its main rival, the Islamic militant group Hamas, which is fielding candidates in legislative elections for the first time, the New York Times reported.
Palestinians voted Thursday in a fourth round of municipal elections in which Hamas candidates won more than 70 percent of the vote in West Bank cities, the BBC said.
The rival slate for the January elections, registered just before a midnight Wednesday deadline, is led by Marwan Barghouti, a leader of the second intifada, who is serving five consecutive life sentences in an Israeli prison.
