Nearly 80% of Palestinians want Mahmoud Abbas to resign, poll finds

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- About 78 percent of Palestinians want the long-ruling Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to resign, according to a Palestinian public opinion survey released on Tuesday.

The survey was conducted by Khalil Shikaki, a veteran Palestinian pollster who directs the Palestinian Center for Survey and Policy Research.

According to the poll, 1,270 Palestinian adults were interviewed for the survey across the occupied West Bank and Gaza between September 15 and 18.

“This is the highest number we have seen calling for Abbas’s resignation since Abbas’s election,” Shikaki said in a phone call.

The last Palestinian elections for the Legislative Council were held in 2006, and Hamas won the majority, while presidential elections were held in 2005, and President Abbas won.

In the same poll, 45% said the Hamas group deserved to represent and lead Palestinians.

Around 19% said that Fatah and Abbas ought to have that role, while 28% said that neither side deserved it.

Regarding Israeli strengthening the PA as it faces a growing economic and political crisis, the poll found a majority of Palestinians — 56% — view such measures positively, while 35% view them negatively.

Regarding the PA’s arrest of human rights defenders and activists over participating in peaceful protest against PA’s killing of activist Nizar Banat, 74% of Palestinians viewed the arrests as a violation of the demonstrators’ rights.

On the PA’s killing and assasination of activist Nizar Banat last June, according to Shikaki’s poll, some 63% of the Palestinian public believes that senior PA officials ordered Banat’s death, and only 22% believe it was a mistake.

Another 69% view the steps taken to ensure accountability following Banat’s death as insufficient.