The Likud will receive 39 seats in the next Knesset with Kadima shrinking to 12, while expectations for Yair Lapid´s party have dropped to six seats, according to a poll by the Geocartography Institute released Sunday.

If elections had been held on Friday, the day the poll took place, the right-wing bloc would grow to 76 seats, and the Likud would make up over half of the bloc.

Likud would grow by 12 MKs, while Israel Beiteinu would receive 13 instead of the current 15. A joint National Union-Habayit Hayehudi list would get 10 seats, as opposed to the current four and three, respectively. United Torah Judaism would remain at five seats, while Shas would shrink from 11 to nine.

Kadima and Labor would each get 12 seats, which is less than half of what opposition leader Tzipi Livni´s party currently has, and a four- seat increase for Labor led by Shelly Yacimovich. Previous polls by Geocartography had shown Labor with as many as 18 seats and Kadima with as few as eight.

Meanwhile, the expectations for Lapid´s party, which had previously reached 20 seats, dropped to 10-15 MKs at the beginning of the month, and is currently at six seats.

As for the rest of the Knesset, Meretz would gain a seat, reaching four, while Arab parties would drop from 11 to 10.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak´s Independence party is not expected to get any seats in the next Knesset. (© 1995-2011, The Jerusalem Post 02/20/12)