An overwhelming majority of Palestinians - 68 percent - favor early legislative and presidential elections in the Palestinian Authority as a solution to the current political crisis, a poll published yesterday has found.

The survey, conducted by the research center of an-Najah National University in Nablus, also found that if elections were held today, Hamas would receive only 15.1 percent of the vote, compared to 42 percent for PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.

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According to the poll, 60.8 percent of those polled expressed concern that last month's events in the Gaza Strip could be repeated in the West Bank, and 68 percent were pessimistic about the current situation in the PA.

Some 53.4 percent thought the security situation in the Gaza Strip had deteriorated since Hamas assumed control, compared to 39.9 percent who thought the opposite.

The poll surveyed 1361 people over the age of 18-years; 861 of those polled were residents of the West Bank and 500 were Gaza residents.

The margin of error was 3 percent, while 3.4 percent refused to answer the poll's questions.