All parties hoping to enter the Knesset following the March 23 elections presented their final slates to the Central Election Committee late Friday night, and the electoral race is shaping out to be a very close one.
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A Channel 12 News poll held on Friday – the first following the slates' finalization, gave Likud a lead over its rivals but showed that the national-religious Yamina party will have the power to decide whether Israel will be ruled by a Right- or Center-Left government.
The survey found that were elections held at this time, Likud would win 29 seats, followed by Yesh Atid (17), New Hope (14), Yamina (11). The Joint Arab List (9), Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party Shas (8), Ashkenazi Haredi party United Torah Judaism (7), Yisrael Beytenu (7), and Labor (6).
Teetering on the brink on the electoral threshold with four seats each are Meretz, Blue and White, and the Religious Zionist Party.
The Economic party, as well as Ra'am, which last week broke with the Joint Arab List, fail to get elected.
These results give the right-wing bloc 48 mandates and the Center-Left bloc 61 seats. Yamina, with its 11 seats, could team with either bloc. If leader Naftali Bennett opts to join the right-wing bloc it would give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a significant chance of forming a government, especially if Meretz or Blue and White fail to get elected.
However, Bennett's support is not guaranteed, as he has gone on the records as saying that he aims to replace the PM.
Netanyahu, for his part, still enjoys higher approval ratings with respect to the question of who is best suited for the role of the prime minister.
According to Channel 12 News, asked to choose between Netanyahu and New Hope leader Gideon Sa'ar as prime minister, 34% favored Netanyahu while 31% preferred Sa'ar.
Facing off with Bennett (24%), Netanyahu was supported by 33% of respondents, but 36% said they would rather neither of them would be prime minister.
Some 42% preferred Netanyahu to Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid (25%), and 40% favored Netanyahu compared to 18% who said Blue and White leader Benny Gantz should be prime minister.
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