 |
 |
 |
|
|
Fatah supporters of new elections
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By israelinsider staff and partners January 22, 2007 |
|
| |
 Bookmark to del.icio.us |
| |
About 60 percent of Palestinians are in favor of holding new elections for Palestinian Parliament and Palestinian president, as current Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for, a new poll published Monday revealed.
The survey was conducted by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion, headed by Dr. Nabil Kukali, and involved 1,050 respondents in the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria (West Bank), and East Jerusalem. It revealed that only 25 percent of Palestinian opposed new elections.
The poll also revealed that 76 percent of Palestinians believe that the security situation has worsened since Hamas took over the Palestinian Authority government last year. 80 percent of the respondents said they fear for their personal safety. Only 23 percent said that the security situation had improved under Hamas.
The poll showed that 35 percent of the respondents would like to see Abbas continue to serve as the Palestinian president, while 26 percent support Haniyeh. Twenty-two percent favor Marwan Barghouti, the leader of the Fatah-associated terrorist group Tanzim, who is in jail in Israel for his role in terror attacks that killed countless Israelis.
Abbas' call for new elections nearly a month and a half ago resulted in a long period of factional fighting between Hamas and Fatah that left many fearing the outbreak of a Palestinian civil-war. On Sunday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in Damascus with Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal in an effort to resume the talks for the establishment of a national unity government.
About one-quarter of the poll respondents said that Israel was responsible for the crisis in the Palestinian Authority. Twenty-one percent said that the Hamas-led government's insistence to stick to its stance was the reason for the crisis, while 19 percent blamed the United State's interference in intra-Palestinian issues. Only 10 percent said Abbas' weakness was the cause of the current crisis.
Seventy-seven percent of the respondents said that halting the external financial support to the PA would escalate the violence in the region. |
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
