Israel Elections: Yamina passes New Hope for third place, poll finds

Likud predicted to win 28 mandates, up from the 27 in the poll taken for Friday's 'Post'

NAFTALI BENNETT: I need 15 seats, which would be the critical mass needed to be able to form a government. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
NAFTALI BENNETT: I need 15 seats, which would be the critical mass needed to be able to form a government.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Naftali Bennett’s Yamina Party has passed Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope Party for third place in two new polls broadcast on Tuesday on Channel 13 and 103 FM Radio, which is part of The Jerusalem Post Group.
The Channel 13 survey, taken by pollster Camil Fuchs, predicted 29 seats for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, 20 for Yesh Atid, 11 for Yamina and only nine for Sa’ar’s party.
In the 103 FM Radio survey, taken by Panels Research pollster Menachem Lazar, the Likud received 28 mandates, up from the 27 in the poll he took for Friday’s Post. Yesh Atid remained at the 20 seats predicted in the last poll.
New Hope, which started the election in second place and was only five seats behind Likud at its peak, fell to fourth place for the first time since its foundation, with 11 seats predicted.
In Friday’s poll, New Hope and Yamina were tied at 12 seats. Yamina remained at 12 in the current poll.
The new poll predicted eight seats for the Joint List, Yisrael Beytenu and Shas, six for United Torah Judaism and Labor, five for Blue and White and four for Meretz and the Religious Zionist Party, teetering on the 3.25% electoral threshold. Any votes going to parties that don’t cross the threshold do not count toward the distribution of seats in the Knesset.
The bloc that wants Netanyahu to form the next government – Likud, Shas, UTJ and the Religious Zionist Party – received 46 seats.
The bloc that does not want him to remain prime minister – Yesh Atid, New Hope, Yisrael Beytenu, Labor, Blue and White and Meretz – received 54.
Both blocs were unchanged since the last poll.
Yamina could join forces with the anti-Netanyahu bloc and use its 12 seats to enable the formation of a 66-seat coalition, or 62 seats without Meretz. Bennett has not ruled out joining a government led by Netanyahu, but the poll found that even with Yamina, the prime minister would not have enough support.
The poll of 591 respondents, representing a statistical sample of the Israeli adult population, was taken on Thursday and had a margin of error of 4.3%.