BackgroundThe PLO Central Council called
for conducting early elections for the Presidency and the Legislative Council
of the Palestinian Authority (PA). While Fateh supported the call, Hamas
rejected it considering early elections illegitimate since the call for such
elections came from an institution which, according to a Hamas leader,
has already lost its validity. President Abbas has repeatedly emphasized that
he will not negotiate with Hamas since it has turned its back to legitimacy
and that he is no longer concerned with the Cairo accords whose terms call for
reactivating the PLO to include Hamas among its members. The Palestinian
Legislative Council (PLC) has failed repeatedly to convene since the incidents
of Gaza despite the urgent need for a PLC meeting to vote on granting a motion
of confidence to the new government. On the international political level,
President Bush called for an international conference (meeting) in which the PA
and Israel participate, in addition to a number of Arab countries; the PA
welcomed the call. Locally, the PA called on all "wanted" people to
hand in their arms and join the Palestinian security apparatuses. In support of
this move, Israel issued a list of the names of "wanted" people with
the promise that it will cease pursuing them if they commit themselves to the
PA's call. Al-Aqsa Brigades accepted the call while other factions and armed
groups rejected it. In the meanwhile Israel released 250 Palestinian prisoners.
The
Results Following are the results of the 29th Palestinian Public
Opinion Poll conducted by the Center for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies at
An-Najah National University during the period from 25-27 July, 2007. The
University sponsors all polls conducted by its Center. Palestinian public
opinion poll no. 29 undertakes the current political realities especially the
incidents that took place in Gaza, the domination of Hamas over the
Strip, and the consequent decrees that President Abbas issued by which he
dissolved the Palestinian unity government, declared a state of emergency, and
formed an emergency government. The poll also undertakes Palestinian people's
attitudes towards the coming elections in addition to political affiliations. The
sample included 1361 persons whose age group is 18 and above and who have the
right to vote. The enclosed questionnaire was distributed on 861 persons from
the West Bank and 500 persons from the Gaza Strip. The sample was drawn
randomly and the margin of error is about ±3%; still 3.4% of the members of the
sample refused to answer the questionnaire.