Latest IPC Poll: Abbas Has Majority of Votes in Presidential Elections
www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name=1201
[Official PA website]

GAZA, Palestine, November 28, 2004 (IPC) - - A recent public opinion poll
showed that the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),
Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), leads the presidential candidates' list in terms
of overall votes.

The poll, which was conducted by the International Press Center (IPC) in
Gaza Strip and the West Bank, revealed that Abu Mazen got 40.5 percent of
the overall opinions, followed by Mustafa Al Barghouti, the Secretary
General of the National Palestinian Initiative, who got 20.3 percent, while
the rest of the candidates were far behind as the distant third, political
science professor at Al Najah University Abdul Sattar Qasem had only 5.4
percent.

The poll was conducted between November 24 and 25, 2004 and surveyed the
opinions of 2719 individuals older than 18 years. The error margin in this
poll was 4 percent and included also some individuals in the occupied East
Jerusalem.

Abu Mazen was unanimously and uniquely supported in West Bank (93.3
percent), while in Gaza he received 42.5 percent of the votes, while Al
Barghouti received 22.3 percent in the West Bank and 17.1 percent in Gaza
Strip. About 31.5 percent of those polled did not give an opinion about any
of the candidates.

IPC said this poll is considered the first of a series of weekly polls
conducted by the State Information Service's Public Opinion and Surveys
Department about the same issue until the upcoming elections on January 9,
2005.

SIS also noted that it will comprehensively distribute all the candidates'
agendas and programs for the elections to ensure equal opportunities for
them and to make sure these information reach the most possible number of
the Palestinian people on a principle of democracy and to help them choose
the candidate they see fit.

The presidential candidates included in the poll included also former
Palestinian Youth and Sports Minister, Sheikh Talal Sidr, Jerusalemite
journalist Majeda Al Batsh, head of the staff committee and lecturer at Al
Azhar University in Gaza Ayyoub Othman, lawyer Ghassan Borhom and Dr. Hasan
Al Nourani from Gaza.