A united party of hareidim would win 20 seats in the next election, according to a poll conducted by the Maagor Mohot Institute for the Makor Rishon newspaper.

The poll, which will be published in full in Friday’s edition of Makor Rishon, found that the Labor party headed by Yitzhak Herzog and Tzipi Livni would win 24 seats. The Likud would win 23 seats, the Jewish Home 15, Yesh Atid 8, Yisrael Beytenu 7, Meretz 6, Kulanu headed by Moshe Kahlon 7, and a united Arab list would win 9 seats.

If Shas, United Torah Judaism and Eli Yishai’s Ha’am Itanu all unite into one party, they would win 20 seats, the poll finds.

Respondents to the poll were also asked who or what they thought was the cause for the dramatic decline in Shas’s power.

Most respondents said they believe that Shas’s decline, as exemplified by recent polls, is due to a lack of spiritual leadership at the level of the late spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef of blessed memory.

About one quarter of respondents thought Shas’s decline was due to Aryeh Deri’s leadership, and about one fifth attributed the decline to Eli Yishai’s resignation from the party.

Meanwhile, reports on Thursday indicated that Deri, who handed in his resignation to the Knesset on Tuesday after recordings revealed that Rabbi Yosef strongly condemned and opposed him, will return to Shas as early as next week.

Channel 10 reported that Deri plans next week to announce his return as chairperson, after having gained strong words of backing from a large number of Shas rabbis and MKs who threatened to quit with him.