The Central Elections Committee said that with 99.9% of votes from Tuesday’s election counted, neither side had reached the 61 seats needed in the 120-member Knesset. Final official results are due on Nov 4.
Netanyahu’s five-party bloc is down from 64 seats in 2022 and is eight short of a majority. His right-wing Likud remains the largest party but fell to 27 seats from 32. Shas, the ultra-Orthodox party, dropped to six from 11, its worst showing since 1992.
The opposition bloc, led by former army chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, is 13 seats short. His new centrist party Yashar won 21 seats and former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s centre-right Together won 12. The left-wing Democrats doubled their tally to eight.
The two Arab lists nearly doubled their 2022 result of 10 seats. The gain followed record turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel, mobilised partly by increasingly anti-Arab rhetoric in Israeli politics.
In theory, the Arab seats would be enough to give Eisenkot’s bloc a majority. But cooperation with Arab parties is politically taboo for most Jewish opposition parties, and only the Democrats have not ruled it out.
Israeli media reported that President Isaac Herzog will push for a national unity government of the largest Jewish parties, including Likud, Yashar, Together and Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu, which together hold 67 seats.
Once results are official, Herzog will task the leader he considers most likely to form a cabinet, who will have 42 days to do so. The government must then win a Knesset confidence vote. A minority government is also possible if it gains enough outside support.
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Source: PAP