Rawhi Fattouh

روحي فتوح Rawhi Fattuh
President of the Palestinian National Authority Interim
In office November 11, 2004 – January 15, 2005
Preceded by	Yasser Arafat
Succeeded by	Mahmoud Abbas
Personal details
Born	1949 Rafah, British Mandate for Palestine
Nationality	Palestinian
Political party	Fatah
Religion	Sunni Islam

Rawhi Fattuh (Arabic: روحي فتوح‎‎, Rawḥī Fatūḥ, also transliterated as Rauhi Fattouh) (born 1949) is the former Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and was the interim President of the Palestinian Authority, following the death of Yasser Arafat on 11 November 2004 until January 15, 2005. Under Palestinian law, he was to hold the post for sixty days until an election was held.^[1] The elections were held and won by Mahmoud Abbas, who was sworn in on 15 January 2005.^[2]

Biography

As a member of Arafat's Fatah movement, Fattuh became the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (parliament) on 10 March 2004. He was elected in 1996 as a representative of the town of Rafah (in the Gaza Strip), where he was born and has lived for most of his life. He served as secretary to the council until November 2003, when he became the Minister of Agriculture in the government of Ahmed Qureia.

In March 2004, Fatah nominated him as its candidate for the post of speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, with 34 Fatah delegates voting in favour and 10 against. He supported Ahmed Qureia, his predecessor as Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, as Arafat's permanent replacement.

Fattuh did not run in the 2006 legislative election and is no longer a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council.^[2]

References

1. PNA interim chairman calls for elections preparations. Xinhua News Agency, 13 November 2004
2. Bio entry appears in the PASSIA (Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs) website, listed as FATTOUH, RAWHI Ahmed Mohammed (1949-) under "Personalities" at http://www.passia.org/index.htm Link checked 11 Apr 2011. PASSIA's entry is referenced by other online biographical sources.