Ayelet Shaked’s Zionist Spirit Party is projected to barely pass the electoral threshold, with 3.5% of the vote, says a new poll published by Maariv on Friday.
The poll found that a few former Yamina voters were shifting to Zionist Spirit at the expense of the Religious Zionist Party, lifting it above the threshold of 3.25%.
Meanwhile, the Likud Party would earn 34 seats, Yesh Atid 23, Blue and White-New Hope 11, Religious Zionist nine, Shas eight, United Torah Judaism (UTJ) seven, Joint List six, Labor and Yisrael Beytenu five each and Meretz, Zionist Spirit and Ra’am four each.
The Shas party would earn eight seats, United Torah Judaism (UTJ) would garner seven seats, the Joint List would earn six seats, Labor and Yisrael Beytenu would earn five seats and Meretz, Zionist Spirit and Ra'am would earn four seats.
The bloc supporting Prime Minister Yair Lapid would earn 52 seats and the one supporting opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu would earn 58 seats without Zionist Spirit, giving Ayelet Shaked the option of presenting Netanyahu with a majority government of 62.
Nir Barkat main draw in Likud Party
The poll found that Nir Barkat, the former mayor of Jerusalem, is the main draw for Likud voters, with 69% of Likud-voting respondents saying that Barkat draws voters and 4% saying he pushes them away.
Meanwhile, Miri Regev pushed voters away at the highest rate of 27%.
Additionally, Eli Avidar’s Free Israel Party earned 1.3% of the vote and Prof. Yaron Zelekha’s Economic Party earned 1.1%.
Almost a fifth of voters polled (18.4%) expressed uncertainty about their vote, rising to 24% of Religious Zionist voters.