With the Palestinian presidential race only half a year away, Fatah, the party that rules the West Bank, has already declared that its current leader President Mahmoud Abbas will be its sole candidate in the upcoming elections.
But Elias Zananiri, a Ramallah-based PLO senior member, says that although no other member of Fatah is expected to announce their bid to compete with Abbas, the president himself hasn't made up his mind yet.
Abbas to Win the Race
Abbas is expected to take a final decision in the upcoming months, and if he does end up joining the race, Zananiri is "confident" that he will win it.
"President Abbas does not live on his own... but people allow themselves to blame him in person, not out of opposition but out of their deep conviction that he is the one who calls the shots, [even though] it is clear that not everything is in his hands," Zananiri says.
In many ways, it makes sense. Abbas can hardly be the only person responsible for not putting an end to the inner divisions among Palestinians like the one that still exists between Fatah and Hamas, whose relations gave a serious crack following the violent takeover of the Gaza Strip by the militants of the Islamic group in 2007.
Nor can he bear sole responsibility for the lack of progress when it comes to resolving the decades' long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that hasn't seen any direct talks take place since 2013.
Reason for All Problems?
However, he is perceived by many to be accountable for a number of domestic problems that have been crippling Palestinian society.
Corruption seems to be one of them. The aforementioned poll found that 86 percent of those quizzed thought the PA was corrupt, as opposed to 63 percent that expressed similar feelings about the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip.
Zaniniri says he is sceptical about these polls and expressed his "strong belief" in Abbas' ability to beat any other contender that would face him in the upcoming presidential race.
Even though the final candidates are not know yet, Abbas is likely to run against such known figures as the chief of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh and Marwan Barghouti, who is serving a life sentance in an Israeli jail for his involvement in terrorist activity.
The way it stands now, both men have good chances to win the race.
According to the same Palestinian poll, a face-off between Abbas, Haniyeh and Barghouti would result in the victory of the latter, with him getting nearly 50 percent of the votes in the West Bank and 30 in the coastal enclave. Abbas would only get 49 percent in total.
"I do not deny that other potential candidates have a certain amount of popularity," says Zananiri, referring to the names that might challenge Abbas. "But they lack the publicity and the support they need to cross the threshold of becoming president... and this is why I believe Abbas' chances to secure victory are high".
