By KUNA,
RAMALLAH : The ruling Kadima party of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni could score a narrow, upset victory in Tuesday’s Israeli elections, three separate exit polls on Israel’s television news channels predicted on Tuesday.
Exit polls by Israeli Channel 10 and Israeli state-run Channel one both gave 30 seats to the centrist Kadima and 28 to the hard-line Likud party of former premier Benjamin Netanyahu, despite the latter having led in opinion polls virtually throughout the entire campaign.
A third poll by Israeli Channel two also gave Kadima a two-seat lead, but with only 29 seats for it compared to 27 for the Likud.
Kadima’s jubilation, however, could be premature, as all three exit polls showed the right-wing bloc of which Likud is a part gaining more than 60 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.
The ultra-nationalist Israel Beiteinu party of Soviet-born Avigdor Lieberman did less well than predicted with a forecast 14 or 15 seats, compared to the projected 18 to 20 seats in the pre-election surveys.
Nevertheless, all three exit polls showed it narrowly surpassing the Labor Party of Defence Minister Ehud Barak to become the third largest in the Israeli parliament.
Israeli Labor party was predicted by all three polls to win only 13 seats. (Pickup previous) nq.mb KUNA 110042 Feb 09NNNN