Likud would win more votes than any other single party in new Knesset elections in which the Labor Party list was headed by President Yitzhak Navon and a new party headed by former Defense Minister Ezer Weizman was also in the contest, according to the latest public opinion poll here.
Likud would still fall short of a majority in the 120-member Knesset but it would nevertheless be in a more advantageous position than its rivals to form a governing coalition, according to Sara Shemer, leading pollster of the Modiin Ezrachi organization which conducted the survey for The Jerusalem Post.
The findings, based on a sampling of nearly 2,000 Israelis of voting age, showed that Likud would lose three seats to the Labor Alignment if Navon headed that list and four seats to a centrist party headed by Weizman. In such an election, the results would be, according to Shemer:
Likud, 52; Labor, 42; National Religious Party, 5; Aguda Israel, 4; Weizman’s party, 4; Tami, 3; Civil Rights Movement (now aligned with Labor) 2; Shinui, 2; Tehiya, 2; Rakah (Communist) 4.
An earlier poll by Shemer, in which neither Navon nor Weizman was among the candidates, showed 57 seats for Likud to 39 for Labor.
“The involvement of new faces in politics at this time would not cause an immediate upheaval,” Shemer wrote. “However, they do have voting appeal … Although Likud retains its primacy in the capacity to form a coalition, the starting point of the alternative coalition forces appears to be fairly advantageous.”
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