Likud and the Labor Party are gaining in the polls at the expense of Kadima and Shinui, according to the results of a Haaretz-Channel 10 TV poll released Thursday evening. The poll, conducted on Wednesday evening by Prof. Camil Fuchs of Tel Aviv University for the Dialog company, surveyed a representative sample of 625 respondents. One week after internal Likud elections, the party has seen a handsome increase of four seats, going up to 17 since an earlier poll conducted January 13-17. The Labor Party, headed by chairman Amir Peretz, has also gained three seats and is now up to 19, according to the latest poll. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Kadima party has lost ground and now has 41 seats, three less than in the previous poll. There were no significant changes in the strengths of other parties aside from Shinui which has dropped below the radar and now longer garners the minimal support to allow entry into the Knesset. Shas remains with 10 seats, National Union gained ground slightly and now has seven seats and United Torah Judaism lost one seat and now has five seats. Meretz and Hadash-Ta’al each have five seats. Yisrael Beiteinu weakens to four seats, the National Religious Party has three and the Arab Balad and United Arab List parties each have two seats. Over all, the Arab parties gained one seat according to the latest poll. Labor and Likud, which each initially suffered from the creation of Kadima, are beginning to rebound but it is still too early to tell whether this the beginning of an upward trend or simply a momentary leap in the polls. It must be remembered that next week, or early the following week, Kadima will again grab the spotlight when it presents its Knesset list.
BPI-info
BPI-info
