Arab MK Tibi
Photo: Hagai Aharon
About 69 percent of Israeli Arabs intend to vote in the upcoming elections, with all three large Arab parties expected to win Knesset seats, a poll undertaken by Nazareth-based Arabic-language newspaper Kul al-Arab newspaper shows.
The poll, which comprised about 1,000 Arab respondents and was supervised by statistician Amin Yusef, showed the three leading Arab parties are set to win a combined 10 Knesset seats.
The survey will be published by the newspaper Friday morning.
Elections 2006
Abir Kopty
Radical right-wing parties are considered potential coalition partners. Only the Arab parties are off-limits
About nine percent of respondents said they would vote for the Labor party, six percent said they would back Kadima, two percent said they would vote for Meretz, and another 1.5 percent said they intend to vote Likud. About 80 percent of respondents said they would vote for one of the large Arab parties.
19 percent to boycott vote
The expected Arab turnout rate, 69 percent, is considered relatively high in comparison to previous campaigns and may also be higher than the general turnout rate. Accordingly, a low voter turnout rate would boost the Arab parties' power.
Meanwhile, 19 percent of respondents said they intend to boycott the elections, while 12 percent said they have not yet decided whether to hit the polls.
The survey also looked into Druze voting patterns, and found that about 43 percent of Druze intend to vote for the Labor party, while 34 percent said they would vote Kadima. The Likud, meanwhile, received the support of only nine percent of Druze respondents, with Arab parties combining for about 10 percent.