RESULTS SHOW NETANYAHU FAILS TO SECURE CLEAR MAJORITY IN ELECTION
JERUSALEM: Final election results show Israel in political deadlock once again, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his opponents falling short of a governing majority.
Israel’s election commission says that with 100% of votes counted, Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party and his allies have won 52 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, Israel’s parliament. An ideologically diverse array of parties committed to ousting him won 57 seats. A right-wing party won seven seats and an Arab Islamist party won four.
Both are uncommitted, but given the many rivalries in parliament, it is not clear whether either one of them could deliver a required majority. Party leaders have already begun negotiations that are expected to drag on for weeks. If no one is able to assemble a majority of at least 61 seats, then Israel will go to elections for an unprecedented fifth time in a little over two years.
Tuesday’s vote, Israel’s fourth parliamentary elections in two years, was widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu’s fitness to rule while under indictment.
Deep divisions between the various parties will make it difficult for either side to gain a majority. Arab parties have never joined a governing coalition, and for nationalist parties, such an alliance is anathema.
Gideon Saar, a defector from Netanyahu’s Likud who now heads a six-seat party committed to ousting him, said “it is clear that Netanyahu does not have a majority to form a government under his leadership. Action must now be taken to realise the possibility of forming a government for change.”