Poll: Joint Herzog-Livni list would get 23 mandates to Likud's 21

Knessset Channel poll finds Hatnua running alone would fail to pass electoral threshold.

By ARIK BENDER, MAARIV HASHAVUA
Isaac Herzog (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Isaac Herzog
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
A joint list containing both Labor party leader Isaac Herzog and former justice minister Tzipi Livni would trump Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party in elections to the 20th Knesset, according to a poll published Monday.
The Knesset Channel poll found that a list containing Herzog and Livni would receive 23 mandates, while the Likud would receive only 21 mandates.
Were Livni to run alone with her Hatnua party she would fail to pass the electoral threshold, the poll found. Labor, with Herzog as its leader, would receive only 17 mandates without Livni, according to the survey.
Even with a joint Herzog-Livni list, however, a right-wing bloc led by Netanyahu could still form a 63-mandate coalition with Likud, Bayit Yehudi, Yisrael Beytenu, United Torah Judaism and Shas.
The Knesset Channel poll conducted by Panels Politics found that in the scenario in which Livni and Herzog run together, Labor would get 23 mandates, Likud 21, Bayit Yehudi 18, Yisrael Beytenu 9, former Likud minister Moshe Kahlon's party 9, UTJ 8, Shas 7, Meretz 6, Hadash 5, United Arab List-Ta'al 5, Balad 0 and Kadima 0.
When the public was not given the option of a joint Herzog-Livni list, the results were: Likud 21, Bayit Yehudi 18, Labor 17, Yesh Atid 12, Yisrael Beytenu 10, Kahlon party 10, UTJ 8, Shas 7, Meretz 7, Hatnua  0.
In answer to the question, 'Who is most worthy to be prime minister?', respondents answered: Netanyahu 26%, Herzog 15%, Bennett 11%.