Poll: Arab voters prefer Bishara, Balad

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
If it were up to Arab voters, MK Azmi Bishara would be the next Israeli prime minister. According to a recent survey, the Balad Party led by the controversial MK, who has previously praised Hizbollah for successfully ending what he termed the Israeli military occupation in southern Lebanon, would win 29% of the Arab votes, meaning 3.5 mandates. The survey, by Teleseker, questioned 400 Arab citizens from across the country. General polls of all Israelis have shown that Balad would struggle to pass the 2% threshold, but those surveys are based on a smaller sample of Arabs. The survey was commissioned by the Balad Party, which said that it was necessary because newspapers are less interested in concentrating on the Arab sector. Zionist parties would get 30.3% of the Arab vote, 16.1% to Labor, 11.2% for Kadima, 2.3% to Meretz, and 0.7 to other parties, according to the survey. The remainder of the Arab parties would get 40% of the vote. A coalition of the Hadash and Taal parties would get 20.4% and the United Arab List, made up of the Islamist Movement and MK Taleb A-Sanaa's Mada party, would get 20.2%. The survey was taken at the end of January and the margin of error is 4.6.