Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party counts on the support of many young Palestinians in the West Bank, according to an opinion poll published Tuesday, DPA reported.
If elections were held today, nearly 40 per cent of young Palestinians would vote for the secular-leaning Fatah, compared to under 10 per cent for its rival Hamas, a radical Islamist movement.
The poll conducted by the Bethlehem-based Palestinian Centre for Research and Cultural Dialogue (PCRD), with Germany's Hanns Seidel Foundation, questioned 1,000 Palestinians aged 18 to 30 in the West Bank earlier this month.
It tested the attitudes of young Palestinians toward democracy and good governance.
Nearly 77 per cent said they saw the status of Palestinian democracy as either "very good," "good," or "average," compared to some 23 per cent who thought it was "poor," or "very poor."
Public freedoms and human rights in the Palestinian autonomous areas were also viewed to be in a good state by some 71 per cent of respondents.
At the same time, nepotism and cronyism are seen to be extremely widespread in Palestinian society, with more than 95 per cent saying people get away with those offenses, to varying degrees.
Bribery is also seen as common place, with nearly 87 per cent saying members of Palestinian society to some extent use pay-offs.
Some 37 per cent of respondents favoured a Western-style democracy, compared to 55 per cent who do not. Also, just over a third of the poll participants said Islamic law, or Sharia, should be the main source of legislation in a Palestinian state.
About 34 per cent placed peace as their top priority, compared to 30 per cent for whom freedom listed first, 11 per cent who said work was most important and another 11 per cent who picked family.
The poll had a margin of error of 3 per cent.