BETHLEHEM, Aug 7 Fatah members were on Friday preparing their first leadership election for 20 years, hoping to breathe new life into the party weakened by infighting, mismanagement and a trouncing by the Hamas movement.

Delegates to the party's congress in the West Bank city of Bethlehem will vote on Saturday to renew the 21-strong Central Committee and the 120-member Revolutionary Council, Fatah's governing bodies.

Voting was initially scheduled for Friday but was postponed by a day because of the large number of party members registering as candidates.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, who took over as party chief after the 2004 death of Yasser Arafat, is certain to retain his position, with Fatah officials describing him as “the consensus candidate.” But there is no such certainty for the other veteran party leaders.

“A strong wind of change is blowing over the congress. In my view, at least half the current members of the Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council will be replaced,” a delegate said, asking not to be named.

Among those seen as leading candidates are Marwan Barghuthi, the party's West Bank secretary-general who is held in an Israeli prison, former preventive security chief Jibril Rajub and Mohammed Dahlan, once Fatah's strongman in the Gaza Strip.—AFP