The Blue and White party and the Likud remain in a virtual dead-heat as pollsters release their final pre-election polls on Friday, with a new survey showing both parties losing support to smaller factions.
According to the poll, conducted by veteran pollster Rafi Smith and published by Ma’ariv, the Blue and White party of Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid fell by two seats over the past week, receiving 28 seats, compared to 30 in the previous Smith poll.
The Likud also fell by two seats, dropping from 29 seats last Friday to 27, keeping the spread between the two parties down to a single seat.
The right-wing – religious bloc maintained its lead over the left-wing – Arab bloc, but saw its margin cut from 66 seats to 54 seats in last week’s poll, to 64 seats for the right-religious bloc and 56 for the left-Arab bloc this Friday.
The Labour party remains the third largest faction in the new poll, with nine seats, an increase of one seat compared to last week’s poll.
The far-left Meretz remained stable at five, while the center-left Gesher party won four seats, after failing to cross the threshold in last week’s survey.
Among the two Arab tickets, the Hadash-Ta’al list would win six seats – down from seven last week – while the United Arab List-Balad remained steady at four seats.
On the Right, Naftali Bennett’s New Right part would win five seats if new elections were held today, down from seven seats in last week’s poll.
The Union of Right-Wing Parties, a merger of the Jewish Home, National Union, and Otzma Yehudit factions, remained stable at six seats.
The center-right Kulanu rose from four seats in last week’s poll to five, as did Yisrael Beytenu.
The libertarian-leaning Zehut party of ex-Likud MK Moshe Feiglin remained stable at four seats.
The two haredi factions, United Torah Judaism and Shas, remained stable with six seats each.
Results for the previous Smith poll in parentheses:
Blue and White: 28 (30)
Likud 27 (29)
Labor: 9 (8)
Union of Right-Wing Parties: 6 (6)
UTJ: 6 (6)
Shas: 6 (6)
Hadash/Ta’al: 6 (7)
New Right: 5 (6)
Meretz: 5 (5)
Kulanu: 5 (4)
Yisrael Beytenu: 5 (4)
Zehut: 4 (4)
UAL-Balad: 4 (4)
Gesher: 4 (0)