Ramallah - Elections to the central committee of the Fatah party were democratic and transparent, party leader and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday, rejecting claims of electoral fraud by one unsuccessful candidate.

"Fatah protected democracy, pluralism and the voice of others," he told reporters at the first meeting of the newly-elected central committee, whose composition was officially announced Wednesday night.

Former Palestinian premier Ahmed Qureia, who narrowly missed out on winning one of the seats up for grabs in the ballot for the committee, charged Thursday that the election had been rigged.

He claimed that behind-the-scenes arrangements had led to some candidates being pushed aside and other names elected in their stead.

"What happened in Tehran is less than what happened in Palestine," he told the al-Quds al-Arabiye newspaper, in reference to the recent Iranian elections, the results of which have been widely disputed,.

Abbas said Thursday he was not worried about a split in Fatah after some of the senior and historic leaders of the movement, such as Qureia, failed to make the central committee, the party's highest decision-making body.

"Fatah will never see a split," he said. "Those who have complaints, we will listen to them and respond. None will be left out. Each member will continue to play his role."

The central committee election results were announced Wednesday night, after two recounts. The committee will have 23 members - 19 who were elected, three who will be appointed, and Abbas, who was elected committee head last weekend at the Fatah convention in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

On Thursday Abbas posed with 17 out of the 19 members elected to the new central committee. Missing from the group was Marwan Barghouti, who is serving life terms in Israeli jails, and Tayeb Abdul Rahim, Abbas' secretary, whose name was not on the original list of 18 members elected but was added later, after claims there had been a mistake in the vote-counting. (dpa)