New poll gives path to power for Likud, 61 votes for right-wing bloc

(A7) A new survey conducted by the polling company Direct Polls published its results on Sunday evening, results which give the opposition parties headed by Likud a clear path to victory.

With just 93 days to go before elections are held, the political sands are still shifting and undecided voters could tip the scales in either direction. Nonetheless, the Likud party maintains its strength from poll to poll, with this latest survey giving it 34 seats.

In second place, as in all other polls conducted recently, is Yesh Atid with 21 seats, followed by the new union between New Hope and Blue & White with 13 seats.

The Religious Zionism party (provided that party leader MK Bezalel Smotrich and Otzma Yehudit leader MK Itamar Ben-Gvir reach an agreement) would net 11 seats, were elections to be held today. Not far behind is Shas with 9 seats and the United Torah Judaism party with 7 seats.

The Yisrael Beytenu party headed by Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman wins 6 seats in this poll (in most recent polls it has just 5), followed by the Ra’am (United Torah List) party with 5 seats, and the Joint List also with 5 seats.

The Labor party, headed by recently re-elected leader Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli, has 5 seats in this poll, and rounding off the list is far-left Meretz, with just 4 seats.

The Zionist Spirit party, headed by former Yamina party head Ayelet Shaked, fails to cross the electoral threshold in this poll, with only 2.4 percent of the vote, not enough to gain the 4 seats necessary to enter the Knesset.

As such, the Jewish opposition parties headed by Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu would have a slim majority of 61 seats, facing the current coalition parties with just 54 seats between them. The Joint List party traditionally refuses to join any government.