The results of an opinion poll showed on Wednesday that 64% of Palestinians want the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Mahmoud Abbas to resign while 61% of them are not satisfied with his performance.
According to the results of the poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah 64% of Palestinians (61% in the West Bank and 70% in Gaza) want Abbas to resign while 31% want him to remain in office.
36% of Palestinians are satisfied with the president’s performance while 61% are not satisfied.
The poll said if Ismail Haneyya the deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau ran for presidency he would get 47% of the votes which is the same percentage president Abbas would win.
In case new legislative elections were held with the participation of all political forces 69% of the electorate would participate and Hamas’s Change and Reform bloc would get 30% while Fatah Movement would get 36% of the votes according to the poll.
The results pointed to a decline in Fatah’s popularity in the recent three months from 41% to 36% following the movement’s seventh conference.
The poll which was conducted in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip between 8th and 11th March 2017 revealed that 42% (41% in the West Bank and 42% in the Gaza Strip) said they will participate in the local elections scheduled to be held in May 2017 while 35% said they will not participate and 15% said they have not made up their minds yet.
The vast majority of the public (77%) expressed their dissatisfaction with the PA’s response to the Israeli schemes of building 6000 new settlement units in the West Bank. 72% of Palestinians said that Abbas is not serious about his threat to end the security coordination with Israel if the settlement activity continued.
