Hamas tops latest Palestinian opinion poll

One month before Palestinians head to the polls to choose a new parliament, a poll released today indicated the militant group Hamas would earn the greatest number of seats.

The poll, conducted by An-Najah University in the West Bank city of Nablus, showed that if elections were held today 31% of Palestinians would choose Hamas, 27% would choose the future bloc headed by jailed uprising leader Marwan Barghouti, and only 18% would choose Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling Fatah.