Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations

     GAZA, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Majority of Palestinians supported the dissolving of the Hamas-dominated parliament and holding early elections in the beginning of next year, according to a new poll released Monday.

    Up to 73.3 percent of the surveyed said they agree the dissolving of the parliament and holding the elections in January 2009 while 20.9 percent rejected.

    The poll was conducted by Alfa, a West Bank-based center, on a sample of 1,222 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank between Oct. 13 and 21.

    The term of the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) ends in January 2010. However, the PLC has been disabled due to differences between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, the second largest bloc in the parliament.

    If new elections were held in January 2009, 48 percent of the surveyed will vote for Fatah while 12.3 will elect Hamas, according to the poll.

    The majority of the surveyed still prefer Abbas as a president as 39.6 percent said they will vote for him, and 22.1 percent said they will elect a jailed Fatah leader Marwan al-Barghouti as a president, while the deposed Hamas premier Ismail Haneya got only 13.8 percent of the votes.