More than half (57.6%) of Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip are in favour of Mahmoud Abbas remaining in office as President of the Palestinian Authority (PA)until the next presidential elections.

This is one of the findings of a new survey conducted by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion, which posed questions face-to-face to residents living in a number of sites in the Gaza Strip.

Of those questioned, 48.7% believe that Abbas’s announcement that he is unwilling to run in the forthcoming presidential elections is part of an election manoeuvre, while 25% believe it is an irrefutable decision and 24.2% stated that it was made to exert pressure on Israel and the US.

Regarding potential forthcoming elections, the survey found that if there were to be new presidential elections for the PA, with Abbas running for Fatah and Ismael Haniyyeh running for Hamas, 45.3% would vote for Abbas, while 17.7% would vote for Haniyyeh and 28.5% would not participate in the elections. If Abbas were to run against Salam Fayyad, he would receive 42.1% of the vote, while Fayyad would receive 8.5%.  More than 70% of those surveyed said they oppose Hamas contesting the legitimacy of the Election’s Central Committee, thereby delaying the elections taking place.

Overall, Abbas is the favourite candidate for the PA Presidency in the next elections among those surveyed, with 27% of support, compared to 15.3% for Marwan Barghouti and 9.8% for Ismael Haniyyeh. Those surveyed stated they were ‘somewhat’ or ‘strongly’ dissatisfied with Haniyyeh’s leadership in 57.7% of cases, while they were ‘strongly’ or ‘somewhat’ satisfied in 40.6% of cases.

When asked about the internal Palestinian conflict, more than 40% of those surveyed believe that Hamas should be held responsible for the continuing in-fighting between Hamas and Fatah, but 42.6% put the blame at both parties’ doors, and 12.5% blamed Fatah. On the same subject, 59.1% said that they believe the origin of this dispute is of a political nature, 6.8% said it is of a religious nature, while 24% said it is a combination of both factors.

Of those questioned, 48.1% stated that serious negotiations are the best way to end the split between Palestinians, while 20.% and 23.6% respectively backed abiding by partisan neutrality and standing back from external pressures.

Almost 75% of those surveyed believe that Palestinian reconciliation and ending the schism is more important than opening the border crossings. Furthermore, 51.1 % believe that the reconciliation is more important than the negotiations with Israel for achieving peace and the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. 36.3% said that both of these issues are equally important.

Regarding the situation with Israel, 31.5% of those surveyed believe it is likely that peace will be made between Israelis and Palestinians, while 27.6% believe that the chance is ‘definitely, no’, 8.9% believe it is unlikely and 21.3% believe it is ‘possible’. Just 1.7% believe that peace will ‘definitely’ be made. In addition, 64.1% of those surveyed either ‘strongly’ or ‘somewhat’ support the resumption of peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis, while 26.7% ‘somewhat’ or ‘strongly’ oppose this.

To see the full survey, which includes questions focusing on a number of other areas, please click here