At the close of the nomination period for the May 22 Palestinian Legislative Council, on midnight March 31, a total of 36 different lists were officially presented. The Central Elections Commission will review the lists by April 6, allowing anyone to object to them by mid-April. Lists must adhere to a set of regulations including the need for public officers to have resigned beforehand and no criminally charged person can run for office.

The last day for submissions witnessed high drama as a number of lists waited until the last minute to submit changes in names and ranking. The biggest drama that many feel will be a game changer was the decision of the popular imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti to scrap his own movement’s official list and join forces with the recently fired former Foreign Minister Nasser al-Qudwa. The list calling itself Freedom will still be headed by Qudwa, but the No. 2 on the list is Attorney Fadwa Barghouti, the wife of the imprisoned leader. No. 3 on the list is another popular Fatah activist, Abdel Fatah Hamiel, who was a leader in the first intifada.

The official Fatah list also produced surprises. Jibril Rajoub, Fatah’s secretary and the architect of the elections as a result of the understanding with Hamas’ Saleh al-Arouri is listed as No. 4. Deputy head of Fatah Mahmoud Alloul is No. 1 followed by Suad Zalloum, the wife of a Palestinian martyr from Hebron; then Ahmad Hilles, Fatah’s leader in the Gaza Strip; and then Rajoub. Three of the top 10 candidates on the Fatah list are women, and well-known businessman Munib al-Masri’s group that has been a strong advocate of reconciliation was also merged into the Fatah list. Rajoub was promoted by President Mahmoud Abbas to lieutenant-general before being retired from his security position, a requirement for all who run for the parliament.

Hamas, which had been talking about a joint list with Fatah, did not achieve its goal largely because of the strong opposition of its own grassroots, as well as that of Fatah. Hamas submitted a mostly ideological list of its top leaders headed by Khalil al-Haieh.