Hawkish bloc leads in polls ahead of Israel vote

[January 18, 2013]  JERUSALEM (AP) -- Final polls ahead of Israel's parliamentary elections next week show Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line bloc maintaining its lead over center-left opponents.

A Dialogue service poll published Friday gives the Netanyahu-led group of hawkish and religious parties 63 seats against their rivals' 57. The survey polled 712 people and had an error margin of 3.9 percentage points.

A survey by Dahaf also gave the hard-line bloc 63 seats. It interviewed 1,000 people and had an error margin of 3.2 percentage points.

A poll by Smith Research gave Netanyahu's bloc 66 seats. It polled 800 people and had an error margin of 3.5 percentage points.

Israelis vote on Tuesday. Netanyahu's Likud Beitenu list is expected to win the most seats and thus likely to form the next government.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.