Organizers announced the final results of internal elections in Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party Wednesday evening, which saw a key aide of the Palestinian president unexpectedly enter the movement's top decision-making body, according to dpa. Presidential Secretary Tayeb Abdul Rahim, a long-time Abbas supporter and a member of the outgoing Fatah Central Committee, was initially believed not to have made it into the newly elected Central Committee. But Ahmed Sayyad, chairman of the election committee for the party's convention, said some of the ballot boxes had been recounted after submission of protests. Speaking at the conference hall in the West Bank city of Bethlehem's Terra Sancta school, he announced the final Central Committee list, which now includes six members of the outgoing committee. Eighteen seats were up for grabs in the 23-member body. Nabil Sha'ath and Muhammad Shtayya tied, receiving an equal amount of votes and both coming in as number 18. With Abbas, that means that 20 of the 23 seats are now filled. The remainder is to be appointed by the newly elected committee.
