Netanyahu claims win in poll

PRIME Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed victory on Tuesday in Israel’s general election, with exit polls putting the indicted premier in a strong position to form the next government.

Monday’s election, Israel’s third in less than a year, was called after inconclusive votes in April and September left the Jewish state in a political

deadlock.

Ballots were still being counted with official tallies expected later Tuesday.

But exit polls by three networks gave Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party between 36 and 37 seats in Israel’s 120-member parliament.

That would mark the party’s best-ever result under Netanyahu, who first served as premier from 1996-1999 and whose current tenure began in 2009.

The estimates gave Likud and its right-wing allies, including ultra-Orthodox parties, 59 seats -- two short of a majority.

Likud’s main challenger, the centrist Blue and White party, was projected to win between 32 and 34 seats.

PEOPLE wearing face masks wait at a bus station in Jakarta on March 3, 2020. Indonesia on March 2, reported its first confirmed cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus, after health officials in the world’s fourth-most populous country hit back at questions over its apparent lack of infected patients. ADEK BERRY / AFP