Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu trailed opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot in the Israeli election Tuesday, according to exit polls — but neither bloc appeared set to win enough seats to secure a clear majority.
At least 38 parties were running for Knesset’s 120 seats, leaving the minor players — especially Israel’s Arab parties — in a position to decide the future of the country as both Netanyahu’s bloc and Eisenkot’s bloc jockey for a majority.
Netanyahu’s Likud party had 25 seats, and his right-wing alliance had 50, according to the Kan 11 exit poll published after voting ended. That would be a massive drop from the 32 they currently hold.
The “Together” opposition slate looked set to win 53 seats.
Both sides appeared to fall short of the 61 seats needed to elect a prime minister and form a government.
The big story, however, was the huge gain for Israeli Arabs, who make up about 25% of the population. They were on pace to score 17 seats — even more than the 13 to 15 that were projected.
That could leave them as the kingmakers — if Eisenkot breaks a campaign promise and work with them.
The official results will paint a clearer picture come Wednesday, but it could take as much as three weeks to a month for the winning parties to establish a coalition to set up a ruling government.
It will eventually fall on Israeli President Isaac Herzog to select a party leader he believes will win the majority of support in Knesset.
Herzog has three chances to tap a worthy candidate, but should the Knesset fail to rally around his pick, a new round of elections would be held.
Netanyahu will remain the country’s acting prime minister until a new premier is elected.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
