Israel poll bounce shows Livni leading Netanyahu

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JERUSALEM, Oct 27 (Reuters): Tzipi Livni has seen a sharp turnaround in fortunes for Israel's ruling Kadima party since she became leader last month and could now beat the right-wing opposition in a coming election, polls Monday indicated.
Two newspaper surveys published a day after Livni abandoned her efforts to forge a new coalition government and recommended to the president that he call a parliamentary election showed Kadima just beating Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud -- a reversal of the results forecast in previous polls, published in August.
The centrist Kadima party has been battered by the 2006 Lebanon war and then the corruption scandal that forced Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign last month.
But a poll in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper predicted it would take 29 of 120 seats -- the same number Kadima has at present -- while Likud would take 26, up from 12 seats. The Labour party of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Olmert's main ally in the outgoing government, was seen taking 11 seats, down from 19 at present.
A similar poll, also conducted on Sunday, for Maariv daily gave Kadima 31 seats, Likud 29 and Labour 11.
The results broke with past surveys that saw Netanyahu, his popularity boosted by Israeli jitters over regional security, easily beating Kadima and Labour.