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Earlier on this story27 Oct: Exit Polls Show Gadi Eisenkot Bloc Leads Netanyahu Bloc, No Majority as Israel Awaits Talks3 more

Israeli Politicsupdated 35m ago2 min read

Netanyahu’s Likud Falls Short as Arab-Led Parties Win 19 Seats in Israel’s 26th Knesset Election

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Arab-led parties secure 19 Knesset seats, elevating coalition math. Netanyahu bloc remains ahead but below 61-seat majority as counting continues.

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Deadlock, No 26th Knesset fix

Israel’s election for the 26th Knesset on Tuesday brought no resolution, leaving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc short of the 61-seat threshold needed to form a government in the 120-member parliament. Netanyahu’s Likud and its far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies were on track to win 53 seats with 85% of ballots counted, while Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party and three other Jewish opposition parties were set for 48 seats. Arab-led parties were on course to win an unprecedented 19 seats, but all but one of the Jewish parties had pledged not to work with them.

President Isaac Herzog praised the 77.7% turnout and said he expected to receive official results next week, then begin discussions with every faction to avoid another election. Amos Harel wrote that the election stalemate lets Netanyahu avoid an October 7 reckoning, even as the vote counting continued without a clear majority.

Reporting for this sectionBBCHaaretz

Arab turnout reshapes bargaining

Mansour Abbas told Israel’s Channel 12 before preliminary votes began trickling in that, “With the numbers we have now, there is no government,” as he pressed for an anti-Netanyahu bloc to reach the 61 seats needed to form a government. Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador, said creating a government might prove difficult for parties such as Eisenkot’s because they promised not to form coalitions with Arab parties during the campaign, adding, “There’s a price to pay,” because the “Arabs can’t be kept outside and only being considered and co-opted when you need their votes.” Eisenkot declared that the public had “spoken in favour of change,” after initial exit polls projected his “Change Bloc” with between 52 and 53 seats compared to 50 for Netanyahu’s bloc.

Netanyahu warned that it was “forbidden, simply forbidden, to endanger Israel by forming a government that relies on anti-Zionist Arab parties.” Al Jazeera reported that Palestinian citizens of Israel voted in record numbers, with polls estimating turnout among them at about 80 percent, and it said the Joint List and Ra’am were on track for a combined 17 seats with more than 84 percent of votes counted.

Reporting for this sectionAl JazeeraBBC

Counting double envelopes, next steps

Between 430,000 and 480,000 absentee ballots from groups including soldiers, diplomats and hospital patients yet to be counted could still delay final results by a day or two. Israeli election commission data after counting all ordinary ballots, excluding the double envelopes, showed Netanyahu’s bloc with 53 seats versus 48 for Eisenkot’s bloc, while Arab parties rose to 19 seats. The announced figures excluded about 600,000 votes in the double envelopes and counting those votes could lead to changes in the distribution of Knesset seats and the makeup of the political blocs.

“The inner envelope: contains the ballot paper, without information revealing the voter's identity.”
Annahar

Double-envelope votes may influence the distribution of seats and described the mechanism as two envelopes, with the inner envelope containing the ballot paper, without information revealing the voter's identity. Herzog would hold consultations with all political factions and invite the leader he believed had the best chance of success to form a government, and if they failed there would have to be another election.

Reporting for this sectionBBCAnnahar