JERUSALEM, Feb 18 (NNN-MA’AN) – Opinion polls, on Monday, showed that Israel’s political deadlock may continue, after the upcoming national elections.
A poll predicts the centrist Blue and White party, headed by Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s main rival, Benny Gantz, will gain 36 seats. The Likud, Netanyahu’s right-wing party, is expected to gain 33 seats.
However, the poll, conducted by Camil Fuchs, a professor of the Tel Aviv University, showed that, both parties are not expected to gain enough votes to form a governing coalition in Israel’s 120-seat parliament.
The right-wing and Jewish ultra-orthodox parties that support Netanyahu are predicted to get 54 seats, while the centre-left bloc is expected to get 58 seats, including the Arab-Jewish Joint List party with 14 seats.
Gantz said, the Joint List, which demands full rights to Israel’s Palestinian citizens and an end to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, could not become part of his possible coalition due to “unbridgeable gaps.”
Avigdor Lieberman’s right-wing secularist Israel Our Home Beytenu party, would get eight seats, according to the poll, meaning he could push either bloc above the minimum number of 61 seats needed to form a coalition government.
A separate poll predicts Blue and White would win a narrow victory with 34 seats, while the Likud would get 33 seats. Also, according to this poll, both parties will not win enough votes to form a coalition.
The Mar 2 vote would be the third for Israelis to cast their ballots within a year. The unprecedented vote follows two rounds of closely-fought elections, in which no party gained enough seats and has paralysed the Israeli political arena.– NNN-MA’AN
