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Results: Left and right blocs appear tied after dramatic election night
During the early hours of Wednesday, Israel’s Central Elections Committee announced the surprise results of yesterday’s election with 99 per cent of the votes counted.
Though the final count may yet shift a seat here or there, they reveal a major shift to the centre-left parties with centre-left and right-wing blocks apparently tied on 60 seats each. The joint Likud-Beitenu list headed by current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured 31 seats, making it the largest faction in the Knesset but with significantly fewer seats than the 43 they jointly held in the last Knesset. The big surprise of the vote was the 19 seats received by the centrist Yesh Atid party, headed by former television anchor and journalist Yair Lapid, who campaigned on mainly economic and social issues. The Labour Party headed by Shelly Yachimovich won 15 seats, making it the third largest party, followed by both the ultra-Orthodox Shas party and the right-wing Jewish Home party, which secured 11 seats apiece. Many had predicted that under the leadership of Naftali Bennett, Jewish Home would win a greater number of seats.
Ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism secured seven seats, up from five in the last Knesset, while the left-wing Meretz both won six mandates, rising from three in the last Knesset. Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah party also won six. The two Arab parties Taal and Balad secured five and three seats respectively, slightly increasing the Arab representation in the Knesset, with the Arab-Jewish Communist Hadash party winning four seats. Kadima, which had been the largest single party in the previous Knesset, looks set to enter the Knesset with two seats under Shaul Mofaz, though it is on the edge of the electoral threshold as the final votes are counted.
In total, 3.767 million Israelis cast their votes yesterday, representing 66.6 per cent of eligible voters. The ballots of those who did not vote at a regular polling station, such as soldiers, hospital patients and prisoners will continue to be counted today with final results set to be published later this week.