The political parties participating in the upcoming election for 22nd Knesset are vying for the Russian community’s vote. Most believe that the majority of that vote will go to Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beitenu party, but the Likud and Blue & White parties are also working hard to send their message to the Russian-speaking community.

According to a ‘Gal HaChadash’ poll appearing in the Tuesday edition of the Yisrael Hayom newspaper, there is a downward tend in voting among Russian speakers. The poll adds the Blue & White party has legitimate reason for concern. According to the poll, Blue & White is losing a third of the Russian-speaking votes it had in the last election as those voters migrate to Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu.

In the April 2019 election for the 21st Knesset, the Russian vote was equally distributed, three mandates. The new figures points to losing at least one mandate in the upcoming election, which will go to the parties mentioned above.

The poll shows that while Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently presented the head of Likud’s Russian campaign, Robert Elituv, who was Liberman’s right-hand and is a former Olympic athlete, Alex Averboch is the announced head of the Blue & White party’s Russian campaign. The campaign is being supervised by MK Yoel Razvozov, who is only in the 18th slot on the lineup.

An interesting figure from the poll is that one-eighth of Russian-speaking voters say that if Razvozov is placed higher on the list, it will increase the change of voting for the Blue & White party, a figure that is numerically equal to 40,000 votes, returning the mandate the party is like to lose back to Blue & White.

The poll also shows that if Razvozov leaves Blue & White to join Yisrael Beitenu, this will increase the likelihood of voting for the party. At the same time, a poll indicates that one-eighth of the Russian audience believes that his joining the Likud will increase their likelihood of voting for the ruling party.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)