A poll released on Tuesday 1 Teves 5775 questions participants as to their vote if there were direct elections for prime minister. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu would beat out Labor party leader Yitzchak Herzog 45.1% to 32.7%. The poll adds that if Moshe Kahlon runs on a joint ticket with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, they would receive 21 seats. This is the same number the combined Labor/The Movement ticket receives in polls. Likud however would only receive 20 seats. Most of the support for the combined Kahlon/Lapid ticket is among voters 45 and older.

The poll was commissioned by Channel 10 and conducted by TRI and Panels. The pollsters questioned eligible Jewish voters 18 and over. Margin of error is 4.5%. The poll reveals that the secular population prefers Herzog over Netanyahu, with the former receiving 55.3% as compared to the latter receiving 24.3%.

The poll shows that the age of voters makes a difference as voters 18-24 voted 64.5% for Netanyahu and among voters 25-34-years-old that figure drops to 58.4%. The trend reverses in voters over 45 and among voters 55 and over, 53% select Herzog and 29% Netanyahu.

Netanyahu seems to maintain an upper hand in Yerushalayim with 69% of the vote compared to Hertzog’s 12% and in the Sharon region 53% – 28%.

Among voters who classify themselves traditional Netanyahu receives 48.7% as compared to 23.5% for Herzog. The dati-chareidi voters came out bigtime for Netanyahu, who received 74% as opposed to 5.6% for Herzog.

The poll also shows the lower and higher income groups back PM Netanyahu and the middle class is a close race between them.

The results of the poll:

Labor/The Movement: 21

Likud: 20

Bayit Yehudi: 16

Yisrael Beitenu: 7

Yahadut Hatorah: 8

Shas: 5

Ha’Am Itanu: 4

Meretz: 6

Combined Arab parties: 11

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)