An overwhelming majority of Israelis say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will remain in office for a third term following elections on Jan. 22, according to a poll published on Monday.

According to the poll, 81 percent of respondents opined that Netanyahu will retain the premiership, decimating the center-left bloc's two main contenders: Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich with 4 percent and Tzipi Livni, chairwoman of the newly-founded Hatnuah party, 6 percent.

The survey, conducted by the Dialog Institute on behalf of Ha' aretz, did not specify the number of respondents or margin of error.

The poll came days after political parties, both veteran and new-comers, submitted their final candidates' lists for the 19th Knesset (parliament) elections, following weeks of dramatic turnabout, splits and defections.

Analyzing the solid support for Netanyahu, Yossi Verter, a leading commentator for Ha'aretz, said the figure of 81 percent " goes way beyond a self-fulfilling prophecy."

"The only possible interpretation of the finding was that this election campaign was over before it began, or immediately thereafter," Verter wrote. "It makes Yacimovich and Livni seem laughably arrogant in depicting themselves as candidates for prime minister."

Apart from the show of support for Netanyahu, the right-wing bloc, to be led in the coming years by Netanyahu's Likud and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party, who are running on a joint ticket, is also gaining strength. Both receive 40 seats in the 120-member unicameral body between them.

In tallying the numbers, the right-wing bloc, when including ultra-Orthodox parties with a hawkish security and foreign policy agenda, is slated to receive 71 lawmakers; the left-center block 37; and the Arab parties 12.

The analysis accuses Livni, who formerly headed the centrist Kadima party and in 2008 beat Netanyahu for the premiership by a tiny margin but eventually lost due to her inability to assemble a coalition, for the center-left bloc's poor showings.

Livni, announced earlier this year her retirement from political life after losing the leadership of Kadima, has recently announced her bid for the premiership with a newly-formed party.

"(Her) main accomplishment so far is enfeebling two of her sister parties on the center-left to the point of oblivion. A good job by all accounts, but Linvi has not managed to attract even a single Knesset seat's worth of votes from the rival camp," Verter said, noting that she dealt a blow to the center-left bloc's already "shrinking pool of voters," with two parties from that camp, including Labor, "on the brink of extinction."

Ha'aretz attributed the right-wing bloc's sensational showings to its ability to unify the lines, "whose members aren't sniping at each other, compared to the circus next door."

Netanyahu and Lieberman's appeal, it said, emanates from Israel 's national agenda, which is currently "entirely focused" on security and foreign policy, in which both men excel.

"As long as every television news broadcast opens with Hamas celebrations in the Gaza Strip, with growing concerns over Syria's chemical weapons stores... and (Palestinian) President Mahmoud Abbas' diplomatic maneuvers against Israel, Netanyahu doesn't need to spend a single cent on election ads. Reality is the most effective campaign he could wish for his party," the daily concluded. Endi

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