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Talab El-Sana
Photo: Gil Yohanan

Final vote tally: Arab party loses seat to Habayit Hayehudi

Elections Committee releases final vote tally; Bennett's party gets extra Knesset seat at expense of United Arab List-Ta'al; 67.79% voter turnout highest in a decade; slight edge for rightist bloc

It's official: Habayit Hayehudi won an extra Knesset seat at the expense of United Arab List-Ta'al: Shuli Mualem, number 12 on Habayit Hahehudi's roster will represent the party in the 19th Knesset instead of Knesset Member Talab El-Sana, number five on United Arab List-Ta'al's roster. This was the only change recorded after the soldiers' and absentee ballots were tallied.

 

Members of the Elections Committee on Thursday finished counting the votes not included in the general tally of Tuesday's Knesset elections.

 

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The roughly 220,000 votes include those of IDF soldiers, diplomatic envoys, patients, the disabled, women who live in shelters, police officers and prisoners.

 

 

Central Elections Committee Chairman Elyakim Rubinstein released the final vote tally Thursday evening. According to the official results, Likud won 31 Knesset seats, Yesh Atid 18; Labor 15; and Shas 11.

 

The additional seat for Habayit Hayehudi brings the rightist-haredi bloc to 61 mandates, compared with 59 seats for the Center-Left-Arab bloc.

 

United Torah Judaism won a surprising seven Knesset seats, while Meretz doubled its representation in the Knesset from three to six seats. Tzipi Livni's Hatnua party also won six seats, while Kadima, headed by Shaul Mofaz, crossed the electoral threshold and will have two representatives in the next Knesset (Mofaz and Israel Hasson).

 

Among the Arab parties, Balad won three Knesset seats, United Arab List won four and Hadash also won four mandates.

 

Absentee tally

Likud won 24% of the absentee votes, followed by Yesh Atid (16%) and Habayit Hayehudi (15%). In total, more than 52,000 soldiers voted Likud; over 35,000 voted for Yesh Atid and more than 32,000 voted for Habayit Hayehudi. Ale Yarok won nearly 4% of the absentee votes (more than 8,000 votes), Shas received more than 11,000 absentee votes and United Torah Judaism received more than 6,000 absentee votes.

 

In the general tally, the Moreshet Avot party came in last with only 461 votes. MK Chaim Amsellem's Am Shalem party did not cross the electoral threshold.

 

The voter turnout in Tuesday's elections, 67.9%, was the highest in a decade. According to the Elections Committee, a total of 3,834, 136 people voted; 40,915 ballots were disqualified and some 270,000 votes went to parties that did not pass the electoral threshold. In Israel there are 5,656,133 eligible voters.

 

The official election results will be submitted to President Shimon Peres next week, and the first session of the 19th Knesset is scheduled for February 5.

 

Telem Yahav is a Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth correspondent

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 01.24.13, 20:51
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