Shafaq News

Israel's Central Elections Committee has certified the results of the October 27 general election and submitted them to President Isaac Herzog, who on Wednesday began two days of consultations with party leaders before choosing a candidate to try to form a government.

Neither camp won the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc won 53 seats and former army chief Gadi Eisenkot's opposition bloc 48, while the Arab-led Joint List and Ra'am secured a record 19 between them.

Likud remained the largest party with 27 seats, followed by Eisenkot's Yashar with 21 and the Together alliance of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid with 12. The Joint List won 11 seats, the Democrats and Ra'am eight each, and Yisrael Beytenu, Jewish Power and United Torah Judaism seven each. Shas and Religious Zionism took six each.

No other list passed the 3.25% threshold. Turnout was 77.9%, with about 5.7 million valid votes cast.

Herzog urged both camps to accept that "not every commitment and promise can be fulfilled" and to avoid a new election. Once consultations end, he will give his chosen candidate 28 days to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension. After the last election, in November 2022, Netanyahu took 58 days to build a coalition.

Israel held five elections between 2019 and 2022 because of repeated deadlocks.

Netanyahu and his allies have repeatedly alleged that the Arab-led parties "stole" the election, possibly with foreign help. Support for Arab lists surged among Israel's Arab minority, descendants of Palestinians who stayed in Israel after its creation in 1948, many of whom have been angered by the rhetoric and actions of Netanyahu's far-right government.

The committee found no evidence of fraud in certifying the results. But it said the Shin Bet internal security agency opened an investigation at the direction of the committee's chair, Judge Noam Sohlberg, after its head presented him with classified information. Netanyahu and opposition leaders were briefed on the main points.