Were the elections held at this time, the Likud would secure 33 Knesset seats, giving the ruling party a razor-thin edge over challenger Blue and White, projected to win 32 parliament seats, a Channel 13 News poll found Monday.
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Next week's general elections, set for March 2, mark an unprecedented third vote in the span of one year. But with polls showing a neck and neck race between Likud and Blue and White, and given that neither the right- nor the left-wing bloc has emerged as being able to secure the 61-seat majority necessary to form a government, concerns that the political logjam will continue and Israel will find itself facing a fourth vote in the fall of 2020 are growing.
Channel 13 News also projected a tie between the blocs, giving each one 56 mandates.
According to the survey, the Joint Arab List, an alliance comprising the Arab or mostly Arab parties Balad, Ra'am-Ta'al, and Hadash, would retain its position as the third-largest faction in the Knesset, with 14 seats.
The Labor-Gesher-Meretz alliance would win 10 seats, followed by Yisrael Beytenu (8), Yamina, a faction comprising the New Right, National Union, and Habayit Hayehudi parties (8), Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party Shas (8), and Ashkenazi haredi party United Torah Judaism with seven seats.
The far-right Otzma Yehudit party fails to pass the prerequisite four-Knesset-seat electoral threshold of 3.25% of the votes.
Also on Monday, the Central Election Committee said it was mulling exercising punitive action against anyone who spreads rumors that polling stations may be infected with the coronavirus in an attempt to influence voter turnout or the results.
The issue was broached after officials in the committee expressed concerns that political elements may try to exploit public concern to swat the vote by issued false statements to the media.
