With 97% of all votes tallied, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu's conservative bloc is projected to win a solid majority in the next Knesset, and the Likud chairman launched coalition talks with his allies on Thursday.
Netanyahu tapped his close confidant MK Yariv Levin to coordinate government talks. All parties aim to end the negotiations as quickly as possible, perhaps even before the swearing-in of the 25th Knesset on November 15.
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Leaders of Netanyahu bloc parties
(Photo: Alex Kolomoisky, Amit Shabi, Moti Kimchi, AFP)
Since Religious Zionist Party chairman Bezalel Smotrich and Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir ran together as a technical bloc, Levin will hold negotiations with both separately. Avi Maoz, head of the Noam party, who is ranked 11th out of the united list’s 14 projected seats, will hold talks separately.
Despite the organs of the emerging coalition sharing similar ideals, security and state-religion issues may still cause friction.
Meanwhile, Meretz continues watching its Knesset prospects vanish as the counting of the so-called double envelopes fails to produce the missing votes.
The Central Elections Committee (CEC) reported Thursday that after 68% of all double envelopes were 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 with just 3.14% of the total vote.
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.
Other parties that failed to make the cut are Arab hard-liners Balad, which slipped just under 3%, and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked's Jewish Home.
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.