Exit polls from Israel’s legislative elections have come in, with no party or bloc projected to secure a clear mandate to form a new government. The polls, released by the major Israeli television networks on Tuesday, indicated that the coalition led by current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party was on track to win 50 seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament, the Knesset. The opposition bloc led by former Israeli military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party was projected to take 52 seats.
That could leave neither bloc with the 61 seats needed for a majority, setting the stage for weeks or months of political jockeying to form Israel’s next government. Separately, the Arab-led parties, which are not part of either coalition, were projected to win 18 seats. This means the Arab-led parties could emerge as kingmakers if other parties agree to join forces with them.
Eisenkot said the exit polls show a “lack of confidence” in Netanyahu, while Yair Lapid, the current opposition leader, said the prime minister’s bloc has suffered a “crushing defeat”. He added, “This is a total collapse, and the public has told them to go home.” But Gideon Saar, Israel’s foreign minister and a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, said the opposition’s celebrations were premature. In a social media post, he said: “Likud is the largest party in Israel.
It is always good to learn something from the past.” Netanyahu, who heads Likud, has served as prime minister for nearly 19 of the past 30 years and has repeatedly survived political crises. Ehab Jabareen, a Palestinian political analyst and researcher in Israel, told Al Jazeera that the early exit poll projections show “a clear weakening of Netanyahu’s bloc” but expressed caution about “declaring either a Netanyahu victory or the end of his political career”. That will not necessarily be the leader of the party that won the most seats in the Knesset.
With Netanyahu and Eisenkot’s parties emerging as the strongest, the two are viewed as leading contenders. The candidate initially has 28 days, but the president can extend it by 14 days. During this time, parties could engage in intensive negotiations and dealmaking, seeking policy concessions or potential ministerial portfolios, as the designated candidate tries to cobble together enough support to govern.
If the candidate cannot assemble a coalition with at least 61 seats, they could also try to form a minority government by relying on support from smaller parties, or negotiate a power-sharing arrangement with alternating prime ministers. To be sworn in, a new government must win a parliamentary confidence vote by a simple majority, which can be fewer than 61 votes if some parties abstain. If the first candidate fails to form a government, Herzog has the option of asking another Knesset member to try to do so within 28 days.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
