Despite Fatah's woes, latest poll shows it beating Hamas - but no one likes Abbas

Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party has been floundering in recent weeks, with the defection of Nasser al Kidwa who wants to run as a separate candidate/party for elections and rumors about Marwan Barghouti being interested in running for president from his Israeli prison cell, while exiled strongman Mohammed Dahlan goes on Gulf TV shows every night to insult Abbas.

But according to the latest PCPSR poll, Fatah is actually doing better than it was three and six months ago. 38% of the public wants to see a Fatah led government, and only 22% was Hamas.

Mahmoud Abbas himself is not that popular, though. Only 32% are satisfied with how he does his job and 65% are not satisfied. 68% of the public want president Abbas to resign while 26% want him to remain in office. 

The people seem to dislike both Hamas and Fatah. When asked what would happen if Fatah won, over 2/3 of those who responded said that corruption would increase. If Hamas wins, the people expect the economy to go downhill. 

An open ended question of who people want their next president to be results in 22% preferring Marwan Barghouti, 14% Ismail Haniyyeh, and only 9% Mahmoud Abbas. Other names mentioned were 7% for Mohammed Dahlan, 3% Khalid Mishal, 2% Mohammad Shtayyeh, 2% Mustafa Barghouti, and 1% Yahya Sinwar.

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