Majority want Abbas to run in election

[shaayecanaan]

Only 38% said they supported Abbas’ decision to step down. The split appeared to correlate with party affiliation, as 79% of Hamas supporters opposed the decision, and 77% of Fatah urging the president to change his mind.

However, fully 76% of those surveyed said they expected Abbas to reverse his decision. The other 24% said he was not likely to change his decision.

Asked to choose their preference from a list of potential presidential candidates, 31% chose Abbas, 12% chose jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi, 8% Fatah’s ex-strongman in Gaza Muhammad Dahlan, 7% caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, 4% de facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, and 3% Palestinian National Initiative leader Mustafa Barghouthi. Six percent chose other figures. Another 16% percent said they would refrain from voting in an election, and 13% refused to answer the question.

The poll results showed that Dahlan and Marwan Barghouthi drew high levels of support among younger people, whereas Abbas drew his support from all age groups.

The poll predicts also predicts a lopsided result in potential parliamentary elections. If elections were held next week, 62% said they would vote for Fatah, and just 7% said they would support Hamas, the victor in the previous election. Three percent said they would vote for left-wing parties, 8% for other parties, and 20% not voting.

more: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=238364

[Violet_Crumble]

1. My bet is he changes his mind n/t

[oberliner]

2. Amazingly no Palestinian leader appears to be as popular as Abbas

In spite of the dip in his popularity right after his statement about the UN report, he remains at the top of this poll (by a pretty wide margin).

[The Magistrate]

3. Interesting Results, Sir

The 'struggle on to more struggle' platform of Hamas may not have proved so popular after all.

Of course one would expect where that party holds the gun-hand the count of votes would fail to track these numbers.

"One man, one vote, once."

[azurnoir]

4. That is quite amazing

a poll taken in August of this year by Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR)
had Marwan Barghouti as the hands down winner, but things do change

http://www.pcpsr.org/survey/polls/2009/p33ejoint.html