Follow-Up: With About 86% Counted, Likud Leads Israel Election With 26 Seats but Neither Bloc Has a Majority; Herzog Urges Parties to Avoid Another Election
With about 86 percent of ballots counted in Israel's parliamentary election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud remained the largest party with a projected 26 seats. His right-wing bloc was projected to win 53 seats, the opposition bloc led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot 48, and Arab parties a combined 19, leaving both major blocs short of the 61-seat majority needed to form a government. President Isaac Herzog made his first public remarks since the vote at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on October 28, urging the parties to do everything possible to avoid another election.
According to Central Elections Committee figures reported by Israeli media, about 85.6 percent of votes, roughly 4.88 million ballots, had been counted as of October 28. Projected seats: Likud 26; Eisenkot's Yashar 21; Naftali Bennett's Beyachad and the Arab Joint List 12 each; the Democrats 8; Shas, United Torah Judaism, Yisrael Beytenu, Otzma Yehudit and Ra'am 7 each; and the Religious Zionism-Zehut alliance 6. Turnout was 77.7 percent, the highest since 1999.
More than 500,000 "double-envelope" ballots, cast by soldiers, reservists, diplomats, hospital patients and others voting away from their assigned polling stations, remain to be counted. Their count was due to begin around midnight on October 28 and finish on the evening of October 29, with the final tally expected on the morning of October 30 and official results to be published on November 4. Individual seat projections could still shift by a seat or two.
Speaking at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on October 28, Herzog said: "We must do everything we can, certainly after yesterday, to avoid another round of elections." "I expect everyone who comes here to come with an open mind," he said. He said he would receive the official results from the Central Elections Committee next week, then consult each Knesset faction, listen to all sides and hold discussions before deciding which lawmaker receives the mandate to form a government. He also praised the 77.7 percent turnout as "a badge of honour for Israeli society" and a sign of the public's desire for democracy.
Netanyahu told supporters at Likud headquarters on the night of October 27 that Likud was now the largest party in the Knesset and called for a strong national right-wing government. He did not declare victory, saying: "This is only the beginning; we will wait for the official results." Eisenkot said voters had delivered a vote of no confidence in Netanyahu and called on him to retire from political life, adding that holding another election after such high turnout would be a mistake. Under Israel's government-formation process, the lawmaker tapped by the president has 28 days to build a coalition, with a possible 14-day extension; if that attempt fails, the president may assign the mandate to another lawmaker, and if that also fails, the Knesset is dissolved and a new election is held.
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on October 28 that his pre-election endorsement of Netanyahu had helped the Israeli leader's standing. That was Trump's own characterization. Trump had posted on October 18 that he was giving Netanyahu his "Complete and Total Endorsement."
Related: Israel Holds Parliamentary Election on October 27
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 以色列总统赫尔佐格（资料图，2021年7月）。图片：Avi Ohayon／以色列政府新闻办公室（GPO），CC BY-SA 3.0，经Wikimedia Commons。 / Israeli President Isaac Herzog (file photo, July 2021). Photo: Avi Ohayon, Government Press Office (Israel), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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