Amid growing concerns of Likud losing in the Knesset elections to the Blue and White party headed by Benny Gantz, a News13 poll released on Friday shows that while Likud is trailing, voters believe that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is still viewed as being “most suited” to serve as prime minister. The poll shows Gantz’s party receiving 36 seats to Likud’s 30 seats. This represents an increase of four seats for Likud from the last News13 poll, while Blue and White remains the same.

What is significant, and cause for concern to the right-wing, that for a first time, the left-wing bloc receives 61 votes as opposed to the right-wing’s 59, a small margin, but nonetheless, a turn in events as the left-wing represents a larger boc that the right.

The third largest party is Hadash-Ta’al, headed by Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi with nine seats.

Unification of right-wing parties and Yahadut Hatorah with seven mandates, while Labor, Shas and Meretz have six seats.

The New Right party headed by Shaked and Bennett, with five seats.

Kulanu and the union between Balad and Ra’am with four seats.

The poll also shows that the Yisrael Beitenu party, headed by Avigdor Lieberman, and the Gesher party headed by Orly Levy-Abekasis, do not make the minimum and are out of Knesset. According to the survey, Yisrael Beitenu achieved 1.6% of the vote, while Gesher 2.3%.

On the question of who is more suitable to serve as prime minister – Benny Gantz or Binyamin Netanyahu – 46% said that the current prime minister is more suitable, 40% believe that the Gantz is more suitable, while 14% do not know. Once again, while Mr. Netanyahu is leading, the gap between the candidates is smaller than it was in the past.

The survey included 765 respondents, including 600 from the Jewish population and 165 from the non-Jewish sector, and was conducted by Professor Camille Fuchs. The interview was conducted by the Midgam Panel Project under the management of Dr. Ariel Ayalon, and by the StetNet company under the management of Yosef Mekelda, with a sampling error of +/- 3.7%.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)