MyUSTINET News: Poll: Palestinians Want Abbas To Stay

GAZA, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- A clear majority of Palestinians want Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to stay in office until the next presidential elections, a poll indicates.

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A poll released Tuesday by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion indicated 57.6 percent of respondents want Abbas to stay in office. The president, whose term expired last year, has threatened to resign and to refuse to run in new elections if Israel continues to resist ending its possession of the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Nabil Kukali, the center's director-general, said the polls showed nearly half of Gaza residents polled said they believe Abbas' announcement is a maneuver in the dispute between the Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas.

Kukali added the Palestinian public has indicated only serious peace negotiations can end the schism and reinstate unity.

"Eighty-two-point-one percent of the Palestinian society in Gaza consider the Egyptian document as a good basis for a reconciliation and a settlement of the internal Palestinian dispute", Kukali said.

The document calls for a 3,000-man security force in Gaza, reconciliation between the Hamas and Fatah factions and coordination between the Hamas government in Gaza and Abbas' Palestinian Authority.

The poll included a random sample of 1,450 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip age 18 and older. The sampling error was set at 2.57 percentage points.

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