“Fatah is due to be a loser in these elections. It is now divided between an official list that the president is running, whether for the legislative or the presidential elections, and another non-official list,” said Mohammed Daoudi, former fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and director of the Wasatia Academic Institute in Jerusalem.
“Kidwa and Barghouti unified their forces to run for the elections and they have good support base, much more than the official Fatah list,” Mr Daoudi told journalists in a virtual press briefing from east Jerusalem.
A poll of 1,270 adults in the Occupied Palestinian Territories by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research showed that a quarter of Palestinians would vote for Mr Al Barghouti s independent list over one run by Fatah.