Poll shows Abbas and Haniyeh would face close election race

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh would be locked in a close race if elections for Palestinian president were held now, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday.

According to the poll, 20.6 percent of Palestinians would vote for the incumbent Abbas, and 18.8 percent would vote for former Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. The poll showed that 16.6 percent would vote for Marwan Barghouthi, a Fatah leader imprisoned in Israel.

The poll, conducted by the Jerusalem Media & Communications Centre, polled 1,199 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip with a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

In addition, the poll showed that 46.7 percent of the Palestinian people generally believed that the situation in the coastal territory worsened following the Hamas seizure in June, compared with 27.1 percent who thought the situation improved.

On the other hand, the poll showed, 35.4 percent thought the situation in the West Bank improved after the subsequent formation of Salam Fayyad's Fatah-backed government, where 27.9 percent thought the situation worsened after its formation.

Prime Minister Fayyad said last week that holding early elections was "not feasible" given the political situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Palestinian officials had said that advisers to Abbas were looking at options to exclude Islamist Hamas from participating in the elections.

Hamas, which won a parliamentary majority in a January 2006 election, has said it would be unconstitutional for Abbas to call early elections. The group has threatened to block any election effort.

Hamas refuses to renounce violence and says it will not recognise Israel as demanded by major Western powers. Hamas leaders have offered a long-term truce with Israel in return for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.