The Central Elections Committee (CEC) said Thursday morning that after 23% of all double envelopes have been counted, Meretz moves farther from the 3.25% threshold and is likely to miss out on the next Knesset for the first time in its 30-year history.
Double envelopes are used by Israelis who cannot vote at their assigned polling station close to their registered address, such as diplomats, soldiers, seamen, etc. The inner envelope contains the voter's ballot and the outer envelope has the voter's information so it can be tracked before it is tallied.
Meretz has so far won 105,000 votes and sunk to 3.15% of the total vote. Arab hard-liners Balad slipped under 3%.
As the count stands, Likud will receive 32 seats, Yesh Atid has 24, Religious Zionist Party 14, National Unity 12, Shas 11, United Torah Judaism 8, Ra’am 5, Hadash-Ta’al 5, Yisrael Beytenu 5, and Labor 4.
The CEC also adjusted the final voter turnout down from 71.3% to 70.6%, lower than the 2020 election.
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud is the only party to have won more than one million votes so far with 1,021,444 votes, and over 240,000 votes more than Prime Minister Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid.
Netanyahu is poised to return to power as his conservative bloc is projected to win a majority of 65 seats in the 120-strong Knesset.