Israel Elections: Likud lead grows, as Sa'ar keeps falling - poll
Sa'ar's party, which at one point trailed Likud by only five seats, is now in a tie for fourth place, with Joint List, Shas and Yisrael Beytenu.
By GIL HOFFMANCAMPAIGN POSTERS for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, New Hope Leader Gideon Sa’ar and Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman are dotting the country as the March 23 election nears.(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90/MIRIAM ALSTER/FLASH90)Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud's lead over other parties hit a new peak on Thursday in the final Panels Research poll taken for The Jerusalem Post and Maariv newspapers ahead of Tuesday's election.
The poll predicted 30 seats for Likud, up from 27 last week. All of Netanyahu's challengers fell since last week's poll, with Yesh Atid dropping from 20 seats to 19, Yamina from 11 to 10 and New Hope from 10 to a record low of only eight seats.
Gideon Sa'ar's party, which at one point trailed Likud by only five seats, is now in a four-way tie for fourth place, with the Joint List, Shas and Yisrael Beytenu.
The poll predicted six seats for United Torah Judaism, five each for Labor, the Religious Zionist Party and Blue and White and four for Meretz and Ra'am United Arab List.
Both the pro-Netanyahu and anti-Netanyahu blocs were predicted to win 49 seats, which would not be enough to form a coalition, even with the ten seats of Yamina, which could join either side. The only way to form a coalition, according to the poll, is with the support of Ra'am.
The poll of 1,001 respondents representing a statistical sample of the adult Israeli population, was taken Thursday and had a margin of error of 3.2%.
