Netanyahu’s Likud party leads in early Israeli election results, with 16.8% of ballots counted

By Tarek Chouiref

ISTANBUL (AA) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party led the early parliamentary election count Wednesday with 24.1% of the vote, followed by former Army Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party with 16.1%, Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported.

The Central Elections Committee had counted 956,458 votes, representing 16.8% of the ballots cast, the newspaper said.

The Together alliance led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett followed with 8.8%. The Joint List received 5.9% and the United Arab List (Ra’am) 2.75%.

The partial tally did not establish the final distribution of seats in the 120-member Knesset.

Earlier, a revised Channel 12 exit poll projected 52 seats for Netanyahu’s bloc, 49 for the opposition led by Eisenkot and 19 for Arab parties.

Updated exit polls from Israel’s public broadcaster and Channel 13 put the two main blocs level at 51 seats each, with 18 for Arab parties.

None of those projections gave either bloc the 61 seats needed for a parliamentary majority. Exit polls are surveys of voters, separate from the ongoing ballot count.

Turnout reached 77.7%, the highest since 1999, according to the Central Elections Committee.