BETHLEHEM: The Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO) released the findings of its most recent poll on Wednesday, which revealed surprising results, including that 60% of Palestinians support the current effort at peace talks. The poll, carried out between 15-28 April, asked a random sample of 1,153 respondents from the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem about their thoughts on various political indicators. All respondents were over the age of 17. The trend found a majority of Palestinians supported, at various degrees, the resumption of indirect peace talks, with a majority of respondents also opposing different forms of violence and resistance activities against the state of Israel. Sixty-two percent of respondents were opposed to the firing of Al-Qassam rockets from Gaza at Israel, 72.2% were opposed to the outbreak of a third intifada. Support for rivals Fateh and Hamas has shifted since the last poll, with current numbers at 53% support for Fateh and 15% back Hamas. The breakdown by region, was that 37% of Gaza Strip respondents supported Fateh, and 21% supported Hamas, while West Bank numbers showed a 62.1% support for Fateh and an 11% support for Hamas. Twenty-six percent of respondents had confidence in neither party. Elections: With municipal elections set for June 17th, just over half of respondents said they wanted to participate in the voting process, despite the de facto government in Gaza's refusal to hold simultaneous elections. A total of 57.2 % said they will participate, while 30.7 % said they would not, and 21.1 % remained undecided. On hypothetical presidential elections, the following scenarios were put forward: Mahmoud Abbas – 32.9% Marwan Barghouthi – 13.1 % Ismael Haniyeh – 12.4 % Salam Fayyad – 8.2 % Mohammad Dahlan – 4.1% Mustapha Barghouthi – 2.6 % Tayseer Khaled -1.2 % Mahmoud Zahhar -1.0 % Other – 4.4 % I don't know – 21 % In elections scenarios, the top candidates scored the following for a PA election: Abbas vs Haniyeh – 47.3 %/ 14.6 % with 29.1 % saying they would not participate and 9% saying they were undecided Marwan Barghouthi vs Haniyeh – 49.4 % / 15.8 % with 24.7 % saying they would not participate and 10% undecided Abbas vs Fayyad – 39.4 % / 12.3 % with 37.6 % saying they would not participate and 10% undecided Marwan Barghouthi vs Fayyad – 41.4 % / 17.4 % with 31.8 % saying they would not participate and 9.4% undecided Haniyeh vs Fayyad – 16.3 % / 41.5 % with 31.4 % saying they would not participate in elections and 10.8% undecided ### * This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) with permission from Ma'an News Agency. Source: Ma'an News, 07 May 2010, www.maannews.net BM
