The merger between the Jewish Home and Religious Zionism parties gives the combined party - renamed "the National Religious - Religious Zionism Party" - an additional Knesset seat, a new poll shows.
The poll, conducted for Maariv by Lazar Research, shows that the additional Knesset seat would be drawn partly from the National Unity's votes, and partly from the Jewish Home party's votes.
It also showed that following such a merger, the Likud party would gain one Knesset seat, and the National Unity party would lose a seat, reducing the gap between them to just one seat, instead of the three-seat gap last week.
The coalition parties would thus win 54 Knesset seats, up from a low of 52 last week, while the opposition parties would win 66 seats.
According to the poll, if elections were held today, National Unity would win 29 seats (down from 30 in the previous poll), while Likud would win 28 seats (up from 27 in the previous poll).
Yesh Atid, third-largest in the Knesset, would retain its projected 16 seats. Shas and United Torah Judaism would also remain stable, with nine and seven seats respectively. National Religious-Religious Zionism would win six seats, up from the previous poll's five; Yisrael Beytenu would also win six seats, up from last week's five. Ra'am (United Arab List), on the other hand, would win five seats, down from last week's six. Meretz and Hadash-Ta'al would each retain their five seats from last week, while Otzma Yehudit would drop from five seats to four.
Neither Balad nor Labor is expected to pass the electoral threshold.
The poll showed that a Protest Party would receive 11 Knesset seats, mostly drawn from the National Unity and Yesh Atid parties, which would each lose three seats. Another seat, however, would be drawn from the Likud. In such a scenario, the current opposition parties would win 68 seats, compared to the coalition's 52.