Polls: Sharon's party losing popularity

Israelis vote for new government January 28

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whose Likud party is slipping in polls, attends a Cabinet meeting earlier this week in Jerusalem.

Story Tools

SPECIAL REPORT • Interactive: Road map explainer • Interactive: Timeline • Map: Occupied lands • Interactive: Key Players • Gallery: Mideast lands •  Special Report ISRAELI ELECTIONS Israel will hold parliamentary elections January 28 to choose a new Knesset and prime minister.  Here is how Israeli elections work: • Every Israeli citizen 18 and older is eligible to vote. • The electorate casts votes for the party instead of individual candidates. • Parties get a percentage of the 120 seats in the Knesset equal to the percentage of the vote they receive. If a party wins 10 percent of the vote, the top 12 candidates on its party list gain Knesset seats. • After the election, the prime minister-elect has 28 days to submit a list of government ministers.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud party continues to erode, according to two new polls, but right-wing parties still are expected to end up with a majority in Israel's parliament, the Knesset.

The two polls, commissioned by the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, showed Sharon and Likud would have captured 31 seats in the Knesset if the election had been held Tuesday.

Likud leaders said last month they expected to win 41 seats when Israelis go to the polls January 28 to elect a new government.

While the polls showed Sharon remains the most popular Israeli politician, the slippage of his party -- coming in the wake of an alleged vote-buying scandal -- raises questions about what kind of coalition government he will be able to form. (More on scandal)

An Israeli Police Fraud Squad spokesman said Thursday evidence in the scandal against five people has been turned over to Israel's attorney general for possible prosecution.

Sharon will need to put together a coalition government with at least 61 seats in the 120-member Knesset to have a majority.

Even though Likud continues to lose popularity, the polls showed voters were not flocking to the Labor Party and its candidate for prime minister, Amram Mitzna. The polls showed Labor can expect to win 22 Knesset seats in this month's election, unchanged from a survey a week ago.

Instead, the polls showed that the support Sharon and Likud are losing is going to rightist and ultra-orthodox parties.

Sharon was forced to call for early elections in October after the Labor Party quit his coalition government in a budget dispute, and he refused to agree to demands from right-wing and religious parties that he take a tougher stand against the Palestinians.

Sharon has said during the campaign that he favors, with reservations, a plan proposed by the United States and other members of the so-called Madrid "quartet" -- Russia, the European Union and United Nations -- for creating a Palestinian state as early as this year.

The right wing and ultra-orthodox parties, along with some prominent Likud members, including Sharon's Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, oppose that plan.

Political observers said that if Sharon cannot stem the Likud losses, he may have to turn to Labor or one of the centrist parties to continue with his policies in a new government.

The Ha'aretz polls were conducted by Dialogue company in cooperation with Tel Aviv University's Department of Statistics. An initial poll was conducted of 527 people Tuesday, with a follow-up poll of 200 people Wednesday. The margin of error is 4.3 percent.

Defense minister barred from running

Israel's Central Elections Commission formally struck the name of Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz from the Likud party's candidate list Thursday.

The 20-18 vote disqualified him from running in the upcoming Knesset election. It affirmed an earlier decision by Justice Mishael Cheshin, the commission's chairman.

Cheshin said last week that Mofaz could not run because he had not completed the mandatory six-month "cooling-off period" that senior military officers must undergo before entering politics.

Mofaz can appeal the commission's ruling to the Israeli Supreme Court.

Sharon is allowed to appoint ministers who are not Knesset members to key posts, and he is expected keep Mofaz as his defense minister if he forms a new government after the elections.

Last week, the commission, which is made up primarily of politicians, disqualified two top Israeli Arab candidates but allowed an ultra-nationalist Jewish candidate to run, even though he had been disqualified before. (Full story)

The moves set off a political uproar and a string of appeals to the Supreme Court.

CNN Producer Avivit Dalgoshena contributed to this report.

Iran poll to go to run-off • U.N.: Truck bomb killed Hariri • EU 'crisis' after summit failure • U.S. House votes to keep U.N. dues

CNN/Money: Security alert issued for 40 million credit cards • Bin Laden deputy sends message • U.S. House votes to keep U.N. dues • Iran poll to go to run-off