A party led by former prime minister Ehud Olmert that would include former Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, current Kadima chairman Shaul Mofaz and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid would win 31 seats in the January 22, 2013 election, a Smith research poll conducted exclusively for The Jerusalem Post revealed Thursday.
The poll found that such a party would win more seats than Likud, which would receive 27 mandates. Yisrael Beytenu would come in third, with 14 mandates, closely followed by Labor with 12, and Shas with 11 seats.
The poll of 500 people representing the general population was conducted on October 9 and 10, and has a margin of error of 4.5 percent.
The poll results follow reports of progress on Wednesday by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s political opponents, in their efforts to build a “Center-Left mega-party” that could pose a serious challenge to him in the upcoming general election.
Netanyahu officially informed President Shimon Peres of his intention to advance the elections, in a meeting at the President’s Residence on Wednesday. Peres expressed hope that the elections would be clean.
Netanyahu finalized the election date on Thursday. The date is acceptable to all the coalition parties and is just two days after the inauguration of the president of the United States.
Holding the election so soon forces Netanyahu’s opponents to expedite their attempts to unite the Center- Left camp. Former justice minister Haim Ramon and Kadima faction chairwoman Dalia Itzik, who were among Kadima’s founders, have spearheaded the effort.
“Someone who has the ability to beat Netanyahu will lead our bloc,” Ramon said.
Ramon’s first preference is for former prime minister Ehud Olmert to lead the mega-party, which would bring together former Kadima head Tzipi Livni, current Kadima MKs and other well-known figures on the Left. He would also want Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid’s party to join.
Olmert told a stream of visitors to his office and home on Wednesday that he would decide whether to run within a week or two after receiving the results of in-depth surveys.
Livni, who met recently with Olmert, will not decide her political future until she returns from a lecture tour in the US in the middle of next week.
While popular former IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi is legally prevented from running for Knesset, Olmert, who is close to Ashkenazi, would present him as his candidate for defense minister if he chooses to make a comeback.
If Olmert heads a Center- Left bloc he would be able to form a coalition with religious parties and with Yisrael Beytenu, whose leader, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, met with Olmert this week.
Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz has said in closed conversations that he would not stand in the way of an Olmert comeback, but he is not expected to cooperate with an effort to reinstate Livni as head of the Center-Left bloc after he defeated her by a landslide in Kadima’s leadership race.
Itzik expressed confidence that Mofaz would be willing to make political compromises for the good of the country.
“I want to see Olmert as prime minister of Israel,” Itzik said. “At this point we need to put fanaticism and ego aside, and consider how to team up with each other and do our best for Israel.”
Ramon ruled out Mofaz as heading the bloc, saying he had removed himself from consideration when he joined Netanyahu’s coalition.
“As far as I’m concerned, Netanyahu will be replaced,” Ramon said. “We won’t make the same mistake that Mofaz made of joining a Netanyahu government and thinking we can change it from the inside. We have been there and we don’t care about being minor ministers.”