Background:

One hundred days have elapsed since Mahmoud Abbas was elected President of the Palestinian Authority. A period during which he was able to reach an agreement with the Palestinian factions to declare a truce with the Israelis, and to introduce some changes in the structure of the Palestinian security apparatuses; he issued an order to unify all security apparatuses reducing their number to three main bodies. Further, Abbas reopened several internal files in an attempt to apply the rule of law and to activate the judicious system.
On the other side of the Palestinian scene, the second stage of local councils elections which was conducted in 84 sites in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was completed on May 5th, 2005. The elections resulted in the winning of the candidates of Hamas and Fateh in most locations; Hamas scored advancement in the Gaza Strip. As a result of these elections some officials in Fateh resigned due to their failure to achieve a victory for their movement in their elections sites.
Within this context of elections talks, the Legislative Council elections law is still not approved because of some disagreement among the members of the Legislative Council on the form of this law. While the Cairo dialogue among the representatives of Palestinian political factions resulted in passing a law on the basis of half for percentage representation and half for the circles; the majority of Legislative Council members insist on the principle of one third for percentage representation and two thirds for circles. There is a talk about a suggestion advocating a law based on percentage representation. It is worth mentioning here that the declared date of the Legislative Council elections is mid July.
* The Opinions represented in the results reflect those of the study; they do not represent by any means the opinion of An-Najah National University.

The Results:

Following are the results of the Twelfth Palestinian Public Opinion Poll conducted by the Center for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies at An-Najah National University during the period from May 11 to 13, 2005. The University sponsors all polls conducted by its center.
The Twelfth Poll undertakes several subjects which are basically concerned with the coming Legislative Council election, an assessment of the performance of the institution of the Palestinian Authority, the state of democracy and human rights in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in addition to political sympathies and other issues.
The sample included 1360 persons whose age group is 18 years and above and who have the right to vote. The sample forms one per thousand from among the total number of Palestinian people of this age group. The enclosed questionnaire was distributed on 860 persons from the West Bank and 500 persons from the Gaza Strip. The sample was drawn randomly and the margin of error is about ±3%. Still 1.3% of the members of the sample refused to answer the questionnaire.

Major Results:

• 40.3% from among respondents believe that the Legislative Council elections will be conducted in July of this year.
• 67.2% believe that Mahmoud Abbas is really concerned with conducting the LC elections on its announced date of mid July.
• 35.4 % from among respondents believe that the present LC members are really concerned with conducting the elections on its announced date in July.
• 63.6% do not know what the mixed election law means.
• 56.8% do not know what percentage representation means, and 44.9% do not know what dividing the country into circles for the LC elections means.
• In the coming LC elections 35.1% prefer dividing the country into circles according to governates; and 33.1% prefer to have the whole country as a single circle. While 12.4% prefer a mixed elections system based on half for circles and half for percentage representations, 5.4% prefer an elections system based on two-thirds for circles and one third for percentage represe