Rouhi Fattouh, president of the Palestinian legislative council
Palestine, Politics, 3/11/2004

Member of the Palestinian legislative council, Rouhi Fattouh, who is backed strongly by President Yasser Arafat was elected yesterday as President of the council by getting the majority of the votes of the Palestinian parliamentarians who simultaneously elected one of the opposition members as a deputy chairman.

The Palestinian legislative council elected in the inauguration of works of its 9th session in Ramullah Fattouh as its chairman ( speaker) in succession to the current chairman Rafiq al-Natsha ( who withdrew yesterday from the nomination) and a first deputy for him Hassan Khureisha, the independent and one of the main opposition members.

Fattouh got 51 votes for 15 for his rival, parliamentarian Nabil Amro, while there were five plain papers in a session which was attended by 71 council members out of their total number of 83. But the surprise was made by large number of Fatah movement members when they abstained from abiding to electing a deputy chairman Muhammad al-Hourani who was nominated for this post in the internal elections at the headquarters of Yasser Arafat on Tuesday. Khureisha, an independent and one of the opposition figures in the council and chairman of the Palestinian audition committee got 44 votes for 24 for the representative of the Fatah movement ( al-Hourani).

Palestinian sources said that Arafat "on Tuesday placed his weight in support of Rouhi Fattouh who got at the results of internal voting in Fatah 27 votes for 15 for Rafiq al-Nitsha who was presiding over the council. Fatah's members occupy 63 out of 83 seats at the Palestinian legislative council. Al-Nitsha was elected as speaker for the Palestinian national council after the appointment of its former speaker Ahmad Qurei' as a prime minister in October 2003.

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