In order to form a government, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would require support from the Arab-Islamist Ra’am Party.
According to preliminary results from 97 percent of regular polling stations reported by the Central Elections Committee, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be unable to form a government unless he gains support from the Arab-Islamist Ra’am Party.
With nearly 90% of ballots counted in Israel’s election on Tuesday, no apparent winner has emerged.
Neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor his critics seem to have a solid plan for building the required majority coalition. When more votes are tallied in the coming days, the scales will tip.
With Yamina, Netanyahu’s coalition of Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism, and the Religious Party secured 59 seats, the two lack a majority.
Mansour Abbas, the leader of Ra’am, has worked with Netanyahu in the past, and pro-Likud supporters are now trying to legitimize the creation of an alliance of Arab support in the media.
According to foreign media, Netanyahu’s Likud received 30 seats, Yesh Atid 18, Shas 9, Blue and White 8, United Torah Judaism, Yamina and Labor 7, New Hope, Yisrael Beytenu, the Religious Zionist Party 6, and Meretz 5 seats, as per preliminary results. Following early signals that the Ra’am (United Arab List) Party will not pass the 3.25 percent electoral threshold, recent results show that it has five seats and the Joint List has six.
Throughout the dramatic post-election night, exit polls were largely inconclusive. The three networks – 11, 12 and 13 – forecast a win for Netanyahu’s Likud party if Bennett, who immediately announced that he will do what is best for the government, joins the coalition.
Orly Ades, the president of the Central Elections Committee, said early results from regular polling stations would be reported later in the day.
Only then will the Central Elections Committee begin counting the 450,000 double envelopes of ballots received from hospitals, nursing homes, emissaries, veterans, inmates, and separate polling stations for returnees at Ben-Gurion International Airport, as well as the sick and quarantined from COVID-19.
