A reading in most prominent newly elected Fatah leaders

BETHLEHEM, West Bank, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- The semi-final results of electing a new central committee and a revolutionary council by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah party's congress members showed on Tuesday that the young generation of Fatah reformers achieved an overwhelming victory.

Winning Fatah reformists, who will be the future decision makers in the movement, ousted the old guard leaders, or the loyalists to late President Yasser Arafat, who led the group over the past 20 years and were behind several fatal mistakes that weakened the movement.

The state-run Palestinian satellite Television announced on Tuesday that 14 members of the 18-member central committee, the highest Fatah leading body, were from the young generation of reformists, while only four members represented the old guard trend within the movement.

Right after the semi-results were announced, Abbas said in a short press statement sent to the press that the final official results of electing the two highest Fatah bodies will be announcedlater by the central election committee which observed and inspected Fatah internal elections.

Four old-guard leaders who raced for the central committee membership, Intisar al-Wazir, Tayeb Abdel Rahim, Hakam Bal'awi and General Nasser Yousef, were defeated by the voters, in addition tothe non-expected loss of Ahmed Qurei, better known as Abu Alla, the top old-guard Fatah leader.

Qurei was the speaker of the former Fatah-dominated parliament and the prime minister of the second Palestinian government formed after the Oslo peace agreements.

Senior Fatah officials described the results of Fatah internal elections as "a coup d'etat of the young Fatah generation against the old-guard leaders who led the movement since it was established in January 1965.

According to Monir Salama, executive director of Fatah conference, who was in charge of organizing the elections' process, Mohamed Ghuneim, a former central committee member, earned the highest votes.