The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, heads so far the count of the elections held on Monday, according to the first results, in which he would achieve an absolute majority thanks to the numbers obtained by the related parties.
Specifically, with 34 percent scrutinized, his party, the Likud, gets 28.7 percent of the votes, which would be equivalent to about 35 seats out of the 120 that make up the Israeli Knesset or Parliament.
Preliminary results give the ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Judaism of the Torah, allies of Netanyahu, about ten seats to each, while the other allied party of the Likud, Yamina, achieves seven. Thus, the sum of all stands at 62, while the absolute majority are 61 seats.
For its part, the main rival of Netanyahu, the Blue and White party of Benny Gantz, achieves 23.2 percent of the votes, about 28 seats, its worst result in the three elections that have been held in less than a year due to the inability of the main candidates to form a government coalition.
However, in the third place, the Arab-Israeli Joint List, which supports Gantz, with 12.3 percent of the votes and about 15 seats in Parliament remains up to now. For its part, the other party in the block against Netanyahu, the left-wing Labor Party-Gesher-Meretz coalition, achieves seven seats. The Yisrael Beyteinu party of Avigdor Lieberman, apart from the two blocks, has six.
The first results of the electoral day are in line with the predicted by three polls carried out at the ballot box published after the closing of the polling stations in Israel, which predicted a clear victory of the parties related to Netanyahu and that the prime minister would meet even at the gates of the absolute majority.
The count is expected to be delayed more than usual due to the additional measures that have been taken by the outbreak of the new coronavirus, as reported by the newspaper ‘The Times of Israel’.
Netanyahu has proclaimed Tuesday his “gigantic victory” in the elections and has promised to form a “strong and stable” government with his allies. Gantz, meanwhile, has assured that the results of the elections are similar to those of April, when the prime minister could not form a government. He has also alluded to remain in “struggle.”
