Fatah, al-Aqsa groups reject Barghouthi's elections for Palestinian Presidency

The central committee of the Palestine national liberation front ( Fatah) deplored the nomination of the secretary general of the movement in the West Bank, Marwan al-Barghouthi, for the presidential elections due to be on January 9th, 2005.

The secretary general of the Palestinian presidency al-Tayeb Abdul Rahim described Barghouthi's position as regrettable and rejected. This was expressed following a meeting for the movement's central committee yesterday. Abdul Rahim renewed the committee's support for Fatah's "only" candidate, the chairman of the executive committee of the PLO, Mahmoud Abbas.

Meantime, al-Aqsa groups of the Fatah movement expressed opposition over Barghouthi's nomination and abidance by the decision of the central committee and the movement's revolutionary council.

This came after Fadwa al-Barghouthi, wife of al-Barghiuthi ( 45 year old) who is jailed in Israel, filed his nomination for the Palestinian presidential elections to the central elections committee just hours before closing the nomination, according to a legal authorization from her husband with whom she had met on Wednesday evening.

In a press conference, Fadwa al-Barghouthi read a statement in which he justified his being involved in the presidential elections to strengthen the values of the Intifada and commitment to the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. In the statement, Barghouthi stressed that he had nominated himself for the elections in consolidation of democracy and the Palestinian national strategy, as a faithfulness to the Palestinians and their right to return back to Palestine. He called on the Palestinian people to launch honest elections away from atmospheres of violence.