By Xinhua
Ramallah : A Palestinian poll published on Monday showed that the deposed prime minister Ismail Haneya of Hamas would defeat incumbent President Mahmoud Abbas if presidential elections were now held in the Palestinian territories.
The poll, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research which is based in the West Bank, indicated that Haneya will receive 47 percent of the votes while Abbas will win46 percent.
It revealed that if the Palestinians were to choose between Abbas and Haneya, the latter would take the lead.
The poll was conducted from March 13-15, during a temporary ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip which followed a deadly Israeli incursion into northern Gaza, leaving nearly 130 Palestinians dead.
Haneya’s cabinet was dismissed by Abbas last June after Hamas militants routed Abbas’ security forces and seized control of the Gaza Strip.
Since then, the geographically-split Palestinian territories was further politically divided — with Abbas’ Fatah controlling the West Bank while Hamas ruling the Gaza Strip.
A previous poll, conducted in December 2007, showed that Abbas would get 56 percent of votes, in comparison with 37 percent for Haneya, if presidential elections were held then.
But such a gap was narrowed after Hamas militants blew up border walls separating the Gaza Strip and Egypt in January, which allowed hundreds of thousands of Gaza Palestinians to pour into Egypt and stock up on basic goods, according to the latest poll.
According to the center, Haneya’s popularity came to a record high since the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006,during which Hamas scored a big victory over Abbas’ Fatah.
Monday’s poll also said that if presidential elections were held between Haneya and Fatah’s strong man Marwan Barghouti, who is serving a lifetime sentence in an Israeli jail, then Haneya would receive 57 percent of votes while Barghouti get 38 percent.
The sample of respondents was 1270 Palestinians from 127 areas, and marginal error was 3 percent, according to the center.