A television survey predicted on Monday, November 1, that the Joint List would hold the balance of power in the forming of a political coalition if elections were held today. According to the poll, neither the current governing alliance of PM Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid nor the right-wing and ultra-Orthodox opposition bloc led by Benjamin Netanyahu would be able to form a government without the backing of the Joint List. The survey results indicate that both these major blocs would win 56 seats, five short of the 61 required to construct a majority government. The Joint List would therefore be the kingmaker in such a scenario.

Joint List lawmakers visited Arab-Bedouin communities in the Negev last week. (Photo: Zo Haderech)

According to the Channel 13 poll, Netanyahu’s Likud would win 36 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, far ahead of the second-largest party, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid, which would pick up 20 seats. Labor would become the third-largest party, with 10 seats, followed by the Joint List with eight.

According to the projection, Benny Gantz’s Blue & White, the ultra-Orthodox Shas, and United Torah Judaism would each win seven seats in elections; Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina and its former ally-turned-rival racist Religious Zionism, would each gain six; Meretz would hold five seats, and Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu and Mansour Abbas’s Islamist Ra’am party would each have each. The survey predicted that Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope would fail to clear the electoral threshold, after picking up just 2.6% percent of the vote. The right-wing coalition party, composed mostly of former Likud members, currently has six seats.