Poll: Netanyahu indictment would have no effect on Likud

Maariv poll finds Likud would still get 30 seats in April elections if Netanyahu indicted. Bennett's new party gets 11 seats, Yesh Atid 12.

Tzvi Lev ,

Netanyahu addresses Likud supporters
Netanyahu addresses Likud supporters
Miriam Alster/Flash 90

A new Maariv-commisioned poll found that the Likud would get 30 Knesset seats in the upcoming April elections even if Prime Minister Netanyahu gets indicted by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.

Likud has been polling consistently at 30 seats, meaning that an indictment of the prime minister would have no effect on the general election.

Police have recommended that the prime minister stand trial in various corruption investigations titled 'Case 1000', 'Case 2000', and 'Case 4000'. Netanyahu can only stand trial if Mandelblit decides to issue an indictment following a prior hearing.

Meanwhile, the Arab Joint List party would be the Knesset's second largest with 13 seats while Yesh Atid continues its free fall from its high in the poll of 24 seats and would only merit 12 should elections be held today.

Former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz's 'Hosen L'Yisrael' would also get 12 Knesset seats while the Labor party continues its free fall with only 8 seats, a stunning drop from the 24 it pulled down in 2015.

The Jewish Home party would fall from eight seats to four, following the departure of Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked, and Shuli Mualem to the New Right party, which would win 11 seats. Meretz, Kulanu, and Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu are tied at 4 Knesset seats each.

The poll also found that Shas would cross the electoral threshold and get 5 seats, the highest the haredi party has been at for months.

The current electoral threshold of 3.25% requires a party to win the equivalent of 3.9 seats’ worth of votes to gain representation in the Knesset. Shas, which has been represented in every Knesset since 1984, has been the largest haredi party for the past three decades. In 1999, during the trial of former Shas chief Aryeh Deri, the party soared to 17 seats, the most a haredi faction has ever won.

In recent years, however, the party has been in decline, falling to 12 then 11 seats, before sinking to just 7 mandates in 2015, after former Shas chief Eli Yishai bolted from the party and ran on at the helm of the new Yahad faction.