Majority of Palestinians support Abbas, shows poll

By Xinhua,

Ramallah : An opinion poll has shown an upswing in the rating of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and a majority of people have opposed his resignation.


Support TwoCircles

According to the poll conducted by Near East Consulting Company, 73 percent of the respondents support Abbas while 27 percent trust the deposed Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haneya.

The poll, conducted May 24-27, involved randomly selected 830 respondents.

Fifty-nine percent recognise Prime Minister Salam Fayyad government as the legitimate one while 24 percent see Haneya’s government as the true one.

Abbas fired Haneya’s government last June when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip by force. He also formed a western-backed government headed by Fayyad while Hamas neglected Abbas’ decisions.

Thirty-six percent of them believe that next president will be Marwan al-Barghouthi, a senior Fatah leader jailed by Israel.

Meanwhile, 65 percent of the surveyed believe that the status of Islamic Hamas movement worsened since it ran in January 2006 elections though the movement won the elections.

As for Hamas’ efforts to broker a ceasefire with Israel via Egyptian mediators, 85 percent agreed with the idea of the ceasefire while 74 percent supported a peace treaty with Israel.

SUPPORT TWOCIRCLES HELP SUPPORT INDEPENDENT AND NON-PROFIT MEDIA. DONATE HERE