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Polls before Israeli elections put PM Netanyahu's Likud behind

Xinhua, March 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

Final polls released Friday show incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud trail four seats behind its main rival Isaac Herzog's center-left Zionist Union, only four days before the parliamentary elections.

A survey by the Hebrew daily Yedioth Aharonot said the Zionist Union would win 26 seats in the 120-seat parliament, with the Likud receiving 22 seats.

The Joint List, a newly-formed coalition of all Arab parties, is predicted to get 13 seats, which would make it the third-largest party in the parliament.

The same four-seat gap between Netanyahu and his main challenger Herzog was predicted also by a poll published in Ma'ariv daily, which gave the Zionist Union 25 seats and 21 seats to the Likud.

Polls from the past week projected a narrow gap of two-to-three seats in favor of Herzog. A Thursday poll by Ha'aretz daily projected the Union to win 24 seats, while the Likud has lost two seats since the last poll and was predicted to win only 21 seats.

Today is the last day in which opinion polls can be released, due to Israeli law that bans poll publications a few days before elections.

According to the Israeli Election Law, once all the votes are counted, political negotiations take place between different parties in order to form a coalition of more than 60 members of parliament.

The Israeli president, after consulting with the heads of the parties, will nominate the politician who will be able to form the biggest coalition. Endit