The turnout in the parliamentary elections in Israel reached 77.7% of those eligible to vote. This is the highest result since the 1999 elections, and compared to the 2022 vote, the participation is slightly more than 7 percentage points higher, reported “The Associated Press“, citing the Central Election Commission. More than 7 million Israelis were eligible to participate in the elections.
The vote was the first national in Israel since the attack by “Hamas“ on October 7, 2023 and the subsequent wars in Gaza and other parts of the Middle East. The campaign has effectively become an assessment of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been in power for almost two decades, with interruptions.
No bloc collects 61 seats
Israelis voted for the 120-seat Knesset, with at least 61 MPs needed to form a government. Exit polls published by Israeli television stations give between 50 and 51 seats to the bloc around Netanyahu and between 51 and 52 seats to the opposition bloc around former Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot. Arab parties are expected to receive around 18 seats, according to preliminary estimates.
These figures are not final and may change during the count. If the forecasts are confirmed, the Arab parties will be among the formations that can influence the formation of the next government. However, some political forces have already stated that they would not participate in a coalition with them.
Eizenkot announced a “new era“
Gadi Eisenkot described the result as a sign of “lack of confidence“ in Netanyahu. “The people have decided in favor of change”, he told his supporters and promised to form a new government.
There was no immediate final admission of defeat from Netanyahu's camp. Likud may remain the largest single party, but that alone will not be enough to return the prime minister to the helm of government.
After the announcement of the final results, the Israeli president will have to assign a mandate to the political leader who has the best chance of forming a coalition. Negotiations between the various parties are expected to last for weeks. If it fails again to form a majority, the country could head to new elections, as happened after a series of political deadlocks between 2019 and 2022.
Sources: apnews.com, wwno.org