Untitled Document

Latest Poll:

Poll No. 166
September 17th, 2008

The most recent poll prepared by Dr. Nabil Kukali revealed that:

57.4 % of the Palestinians support the halt of the suicide bombings inside Israel.

33.5 % are in favor of Mr. John Mc Cain as a presidential candidate in the US elections.

66.9 % oppose the imposition of the death penalty in the Palestinian Territories.

66.6 % evaluated their economic situation as 'bad'.

Beit Sahour – The Information Bureau:
In the most recent poll prepared by Dr. Nabil Kukali, conducted and published by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO) during the period from )1-10) September 2008, a random sample consisting of (1020) Palestinian adults over 18 years old representing the various demographic specimen in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, were face-to-face interviewed.

Imposition of the Death Penalty
The poll results revealed that two thirds of the Palestinian people (66.9 %) oppose the imposition of the death penalty in their home land, whilst only (28.5 %) support it and (4.5 %) declined to give their opinion.

The favorite US Presidential Candidate:
Dr. Nabil Kukali, Director-General of the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO), said that the most significant finding the poll results unveiled is that a substantial rate of the Palestinian public (33.5 %) are at present in favor of Mr. John McCain, the candidate of the US Republicans, as the coming President of the United States of America, whilst Mr. Barack Obama, the candidate of the Democratic Party, scored (27.7 %). (30.4 %) of the Palestinians said they "favor neither of them" and (8.3 %) declined to answer.

Dr. Kukali indicated in his comments on these results that the modest support for Mr. Barack Obama could be attributed to his previous declarations about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that agitated among the Palestinians a feeling of discontent as he said that "the City of Jerusalem should remain the capital of Israel and must be kept unified. And the right of the Palestinians to re-claim Jerusalem should be left to the negotiations between the two conflict parties". "Mr. Obama emphasized thereby the legitimate right of Israel to annex the whole city", Dr. Kukali said.

The suicide bombings:
(56.6 %) of the Palestinians are of the opinion that the suicide bombings harm at present the Palestinian national interests, whilst (38.7 %) think that these are of benefit and (4.7 %) declined to give an answer. Regarding the suicide bombings inside the Israeli territory, (57.4 %) are in favor of their halt at present, whilst (37.8%) are for their continuance and (4.8. %) hesitated to answer.

Peace between Palestinians and Israelis:
In respect of the question:" Now think of the future when your children are in your Age! Do you think there would be at that time peace between Israelis and Palestinians?" (2.4 %) answered "definitely", (30.9 %) "Likely", (25.2 %) "Possible", (8.5 %) "Unlikely", (29.3 %) "Definitely not" and (3.7 %) answered “I don't know".

The PA Presidency Elections:
Regarding the question:" If new PA Presidency elections would be held now, and Mr. Mahmoud Abbas would candidate for Fateh, and Mr. Ismael Haniyyeh would candidate for Hamas. For whom would you vote ?", (46.6 %) said "for Mahmoud Abbas", (24.8 %) "for Ismael Haniyyeh", (25.2 %) "wouldn't participate in the elections" and (3.42 %) answered "I don't know".

Responding to the question: " In case the two rivals, Mr. Marwan Barghouthi for Fateh and Mr. Ismael Haniyyeh for Hamas, run the presidential elections, for whom would you vote ?", (48.0 %) said "for Marwan Barghouthi", (25.7 %)"for Ismael Haniyyeh", (23.7 %) "wouldn't participate in the elections" and (2.7 %) said "I don't know".

The concern about the naked subsistence:
Responding to the question: "Up to which extent are you worried about the naked subsistence of your family at present? “ (31.5%) answered "worried", (39.7%) are "too much worried", (19.4%) "Not so much worried ", (6.3%) "Not worried at all" and (3.1%) answered "I don't know".

The economic conditions:
(66.6%) of the Palestinians evaluated the general economic condition in the Palestinian territories as "bad" whilst (26.3%) said "it's mediocre", only (6.1%) described it as "good" and (1.0 %) declined to answer.

Significance of the foreign aid:
Responding to the question: "Up to which extent does the European and US financial aid contribute generally to the Palestinians' well-being?” (44.6%) answered "to a high degree", (44.8%) said "to a moderate degree", (6.9%) "To a slight degree", while (3.6%) said "to a nil degree" and (0.5%) "Don't know".

The personal security:
Regarding the question: "Up to which extent are you worried about your personal security ?", (31.5%) answered "too much worried", (37.2%) are "worried", (23.8%) are "not so much worried", (5.7%) are "not worried at all" and (1.8%) answered " I don't know " .

The future perspective:
(50.0%) of the respondents answered that they, notwithstanding the prevailing political and economical conditions of the country, are "optimistic", whilst (42.0%) said they are " pessimistic " and (8.0%) declined to answer.

The concerns of the citizen:
Responding to the question: “What is your main concern at present? “ (26.3%) answered “job / money", (26.2%) "The security", (30.5%) "The health" and (16.8%) "The future" and (0.2%) answered "I don't know".

The content with the life:
Answering the question: “How much are you in general content with your life?” taking into consideration that the answers were in figures from 1 to 10 where (1) stands for the utmost degree of discontent and (10) for the utmost degree of content. The outcome was in average (4.32) and the standard deviation was (2.28).

Methodology of the Survey Study:
Mr. Elias Kukali, a staff member of the Research and Studies' Section at the PCPO, said that all interviews of this survey were conducted inside the respondents' homes, i.e. face-to-face during different working hours, at least 5 hours a day, including the evening time, in order to ensure proper representation of those sub-groups of the population, which would otherwise be difficult to reach and selecting one individual in each household using Last Birthday Method. The choices were taken from a total of (154) election sites, from which (115) sites are located in West Bank and (39) sites in Gaza Strip according to the distribution of the Central Election Commission. These election sites were randomly chosen by using the method of the simple random sample. These in turn were the beginning of the random sample choice made from those regions in accordance with PCPO's long experienced methodology.

Mr. E. Kukali has further established that the margin of error was (±3.06 %) at a significance and confidence levels of (5%) and (95%) respectively. He added that the rate of the female respondents in this survey was (49.6%) against (50.4%) male respondents. The distribution of the random sample between the Palestinian two major regions was (63.6%) in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and (36.4%) in Gaza Strip, and allocated as follows: (50.1%) for the towns, (31.7%) for the villages and (18.2%) for the camps.