Israeli Election Polls Show Tight Race, No Clear Majority
Translated & summarized from Maariv by baba
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- Polls show a close Israeli election race with no clear majority.
- Yishar party leads in some polls, but no bloc reaches 61 seats.
- Netanyahu's bloc and the opposition are in a near-tie in average results.
- The "HaMeyuladim-HaKalkalit" party struggles to pass the electoral threshold.
- Smaller parties and their seat counts could be decisive in government formation.
With three weeks until the election, recent polls from Israel's major television channels and the Maariv newspaper indicate a close race with no clear winner. The Yishar party, led by Gadi Eisenkot, is leading in several surveys, but no political bloc is projected to reach the 61-seat majority needed to form a government.
Across five different polls, the average results show the Likud party leading with approximately 23 seats, followed closely by Yishar with 22.2 seats. The right-wing bloc's seat count ranges between 49 and 63 mandates. However, the average of three key polls from Maariv, Channel 13, and Kan News places the Netanyahu bloc and the Zionist opposition in a near-tie, each with around 52.3 seats.
A Maariv poll specifically shows the right-wing coalition bloc strengthening to 51 seats, while the opposition has 53. The "HaMeyuladim-HaKalkalit" party, led by Yoaz Hendel and Yaron Zehlikha, is struggling to pass the electoral threshold in some surveys, receiving 2.8% of the vote in one instance, compared to 4 seats in a previous poll.
Channel 13's poll suggests Yishar would be the largest party with 21 seats, a drop of one seat from their previous poll, while the Likud, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, gains one seat to reach 19. In this poll, the Netanyahu bloc leads with 54 seats, and the Eisenkot bloc has 52, with Arab parties holding 14 seats.
Kan News's survey shows Yishar at 23 seats and Likud at 21, with the Amcha Israel party, led by Ofer Winter, passing the electoral threshold. The bloc picture from Kan News shows the coalition and opposition tied at 52 seats each, with Arab parties holding 12 seats.
The average of the three main polls indicates a deadlock, with the Netanyahu bloc (including Amcha Israel) and the Zionist opposition both securing approximately 52.3 seats. Arab parties collectively garner about 12.7 seats, and the Hendel-Zehlikha list averages around 2.7 seats. Yishar leads the average with about 21.7 seats, two more than Likud's 19.7. Naftali Bennett's Together party is third with 11.7 seats, followed by Democrats with 10 and Yisrael Beiteinu with nine.
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