The Palestinian militant will Challenge the Abbasid Party in the Elections

JERUSALEM A popular Palestinian militant broke with the political party that controls the Palestinian Authority late Wednesday, escalating a power struggle and dampening party hopes of maintaining a monopoly power in the parliamentary elections.

The militant, Marwan Barghouti, 61, has long been a revered figure in Fatah, the secular party that runs the Palestinian Authority, and was co-founded by Yasir Arafat, the former Palestinian leader. Although serving multiple life sentences in an Israeli prison on five counts of murder, Mr. Barghouti commands considerable respect among many party cadres and is considered a possible future candidate for the Palestinian presidency.

On Wednesday evening, Fatah members acting on his behalf broke away from the party, forming a separate electoral proposal that will run against Fatah in the May election and giving a direct challenge to the 85-year-old Fatah leader. , Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority.

Mr Barghoutis faction joined forces with another longtime protagonist of Palestinian politics, Nasser al-Kidwa, a nephew of Mr Barghoutis. Arafat and a former Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, who split from Fatah this year.

Analysts believe their alliance could split Fatahs votes, possibly acting as a disruptor that could take advantage of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza.

This is a dramatic and major development, said Ghaith al-Omari, a former adviser to Mr. Abbas and a senior analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a research group in Washington. This is such a big challenge that can be raised for Abbas’s election strategy and more generally for his control over Fatah.

Mr Abbas, who has led the Palestinian Authority for 16 years, called for new elections in January in hopes of reaffirming his democratic legitimacy and restoring a unified Palestinian Authority. Authority administers parts of the occupied West Bank, while Hamas runs the Gaza Strip.

The authority has not held elections since 2006 for its parliament, the Palestinian Legislative Council. Mr Abbas has repeatedly pushed them, at least in part because he feared losing to Hamas, which ousted control of the Gaza Strip from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in 2007.

Mr Abbas hoped the new election could finally lead to reconciliation with Hamas. Instead, they have exposed a major power struggle within Fatah itself.

This is one of the most important political developments in Fatah since Abbas became president in 2005, said Mr. Al-Omari. Barghouti and Kidwa are a combination that cannot be easily removed by Fatah leadership. They have a very deep reservoir of legitimacy in the party and they represent a major challenge for Abbass to retain power in it.

Mr Barghouti ran for president of the Palestinian Authority in 2004, before retiring and supporting Mr Abbas. He had been a leader of the Palestinian uprisings in the late 1980s and early 2000s and was convicted in 2004 of involvement in the killings of five Israelis.

He was sentenced to five life sentences and campaigned for office from his prison cell.

Fatah supporters will now be forced to choose between three factions affiliated with the official Fatah party, the Barghouti-al-Kidwa alliance, and a fragmented third group led by a former exiled security chief, Muhammad Dahlan.

Members of the alliance Mr. Barghoutis said they had formed the new faction to revive Palestinian politics, which has increasingly become a show with a man centered around Mr. Barghoutis. Abbas, who has ruled by decree for more than a decade.

The Palestinian political system can no longer be reformed alone, Hani al-Masri, a member of the new alliance, told a news conference Wednesday night. It needs profound changes.

A Fatah official dismissed the group as tunics.

Even with our Prophet Muhammad, there were returned clothes, said Jibril Rajoub, secretary general of the Fatah Central Committee, at a special press conference abroad in Ramallah, West Bank. Fatah is strong and stands together.

Mr Abbas has canceled elections in the past, and some believe he may seek to do so again in the coming weeks.

But at this point, a cancellation would be very costly, politically, said Ghassan Khatib, a Ramallah-based political analyst and former minister under Mr. Abbas. There is a high political price for this.

Mr Abbass’s best hope would be for the Israeli authorities to intervene in the election, Mr Abbass said. Khatib. Hamas has already accused Israel of arresting some of its leaders and warning them not to run in the election, which Israel denies. And Palestinian officials say the Israeli government has not yet responded to a request to allow voting in East Jerusalem.

This dynamic that can give Mr. Abbas a pretext to cancel the vote.

Mr. Abbas needs an excuse that could justify such a decision, said Mr. Khatib.