Polls before Israeli elections put PM's party behind

Jerusalem, March 13
Final polls released on Friday -- only four days before parliamentary elections -- show incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party trailing four seats behind its main rival Isaac Herzog's centre-left Zionist Union.

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, Xinhua news agency reported.

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 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 Likud.

Polls from the past week projected a narrow gap of two-to-three seats in favour 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.

Friday is the last day on which opinion polls can be released in line with Israeli law that bans poll publications any closer to elections.

According to 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.