Marwan Barghouthi, a Palestinian archterrorist jailed for life by Israel, would win most votes if an election were held to find a successor for 82-year-old Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a survey released on Wednesday found.
The poll was conducted by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, which interviewed 2,150 adults in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Thirty percent of respondents named Barghouthi, a member of Abbas' Fatah faction to whom an Israeli court handed five life sentences for murder in 2004, as their favorite to replace Abbas.
Barghouthi, 59, was convicted of masterminding attacks by Fatah's armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Seen by some Palestinians as a pragmatist, he enjoys strong grassroots support and has good relations with all Palestinian factions, including with the Islamist terrorist group Hamas.
The next most popular candidate was Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas, with 23% support.
Questions about Abbas' prospects were raised by his eight-day hospitalization in May for what officials said was a lung infection.
Wednesday's poll found that 61% of the public want Abbas to resign and 33% want him to stay in office.
Abbas became PA president in 2005 after the death of Yasser Arafat, and pursued U.S.-led peace talks with Israel. But many Palestinians lost faith in him as his efforts yielded no gains and talks stalled in 2014.
Abbas' democratic mandate expired nine years ago, with no new elections set due to a Fatah-Hamas power struggle.
Trailing Barghouthi and Haniyeh in the poll were PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and former Gaza strongman Mohammad Dahlan with 6% support each, West Bank activist Mustafa Barghouthi and former Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal (3% each), and ex-finance minister Salam Fayyad (2%).
The PCPSR poll found that 48% of Palestinians believe that, post-Abbas, rival factions would be able to agree on a new election; 41% said they did not believe this.
