Reuters/Nir Elias
Politics
Netanyahu’s Likud scores victory over Zionist Union in Israel elections
from RT.com:
Preliminary results place the Israeli PM’s Likud party ahead of its rival, Zionist Union. Netanyahu has already claimed a victory that would see him in office for a third straight term and announced desire to form a coalition government “without delay.”
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With around 70 per cent of votes counted, Likud was leading with 23.73 per cent, the Central Elections Committee said, with the centre-left Zionist Union trailing at 19.06 per cent.
The results were claimed to be a “great victory” by Netanyahu. On his Twitter account, the PM said that“against all odds” the election became “a great victory for the national camp led by Likud, a great victory for the people of Israel.”
After claiming the victory, Netanyahu expressed the desire to form a coalition government “without delay,” inviting other right-wing politicians to join. “Reality does not take a break,” he told his supporters.
Netanyahu’s main rival, Isaac Herzog from the Zionist Union, says that he will make ”every effort” to form a coalition.
Coming out of the exit polls, Herzog also told his supporters that “this result allows us to return to power”.
Earlier, Channel 10 and Channel 1 said the two opposing parties secured 27 seats each in the 120-member parliament – the Knesset. Channel 2 said that PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud finished with a narrow victory, winning 28 seats to the 27 of Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Union.
The Joint Arab List, led by Ayman Odeh, which has emerged as one of the surprises in the election campaign, took the third place in the vote, according to exit polls.
The Tuesday election proved to be a test for Israel’s long-serving PM Benjamin Netanyahu, with the vote having been predicted to be a closely-fought battle. While Netanyahu stayed true to his hardline policies, having once again announced on Monday that he would not allow the creation of a Palestinian state, the Zionist Union concentrated their election campaign on social and economic issues.
Voter turnout in the election has surpassed 2013 attendance levels, with over 70 percent of 5.9 million eligible voters declared to have attended two hours before the polls closed.
Turnout among Arab Israelis, who account for just over 20 percent of the population, was reported to have been higher than in the past. They were seen to have formed long lines outside polling stations on Tuesday, with the leader of the Arab Joint List Ayman Odeh describing the current vote as “a historic day for the Arabs.”
With final results not expected until early Wednesday morning, the lineup of Israel’s new government will not be completely clear for some weeks, but its formation has already proved to be a challenge for both winning candidates.
Israelis vote for party lists, not individual candidates, with the Knesset seats allocated according to the percentage of the votes which the parties win. The country is thus governed by a coalition, with the head of the winning party having up to six weeks to form it.
