Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party is set to win 25 seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament, according to an exit poll results released by the state-run television channel Kan-11 after the polls closed.
Netanyahu’s key rival from the opposition, Gadi Eisenkot and his Yashar party, are second, winning 21 seats.
Meanwhile, the poll results suggest that the opposition bloc is outstripping the current ruling coalition with 53 seats vs 50 seats of Netanyahu’s bloc. Arab parties are winning 17 seats, but neither the Likud bloc nor the opposition are ready to form a coalition with them, according to forecasts.
Neither of the political forces is getting 61 seats required to forma a ruling majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
Parliamentary elections in Israel are held on party lists, with 36 parties vying for seats in parliament. The electoral threshold is 3.25%. AS many as 7.3 million Israelis are eligible to vote. The Central Elections Committee is expected to announce preliminary vote counts on October 29, and the final results of the elections are to be officially released no later than November 4. Once the official results are received, the president will begin consultations with representatives of the parties that have won seats in the Knesset, following which he will task one of the lawmakers with forming a new governing coalition.
