UPDATE - Netanyahu’s bloc projected to win 53 seats, Eisenkot’s 48 in Israeli elections

ADDS MORE DETAILS

By Sahin Demir

ISTANBUL (AA) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc was projected to win 53 parliamentary seats Wednesday after all regular ballots were counted, with more than 500,000 special ballots still pending, Channel 12 reported.

The opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot was projected to secure 48 seats, while predominantly Arab parties were expected to win 19 seats, according to the broadcaster.

Neither main bloc was projected to reach the 61 seats required for a parliamentary majority in the 120-member Knesset.

According to Israeli news website Ynet, Netanyahu’s Likud was projected to remain the largest party with 26 seats, down from 32 in the 2022 elections, followed by Eisenkot’s Yashar with 21 seats. Yashar is contesting its first parliamentary election.

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Together (Beyachad) alliance was projected to secure 12 seats, also in its first election.

The predominantly Arab Joint List was projected to win 12 seats, while Ra’am was expected to secure seven, bringing the combined representation of Arab parties to 19 seats, up from 10 in 2022.

The Democrats were projected to win eight seats, compared with four seats won by their predecessor parties, Labor and Meretz, in the previous election.

Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu was projected to secure seven seats, up from six in 2022.

The ultra-Orthodox Shas party was projected to win seven seats, down from 11 in the previous election, while United Torah Judaism was expected to secure seven, unchanged from 2022.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit was projected to win seven seats, while the Religious Zionism-Zehut alliance, led by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, was expected to secure six.

Ben-Gvir’s and Smotrich’s parties contested the 2022 elections together on a joint list that won 14 seats. Their projected combined representation of 13 seats would mark a decline of one seat.

Voter turnout reached 77.7%, the highest since 1999, Channel 12 reported.

However, more than 500,000 special double-envelope ballots remained to be counted, potentially affecting the final distribution of parliamentary seats.

Double-envelope ballots are used by voters casting their votes away from their registered polling stations, including soldiers, diplomats, police officers and displaced residents.

Under the system, voters place their ballots in an envelope, which is then placed inside a second envelope containing their identification details to prevent duplicate voting.

Elad Naveh, director of the Central Elections Committee’s control center, said the counting of double-envelope ballots was expected to begin Wednesday evening and finish Thursday evening.

He said the process could continue until Friday.

The projected results could change once election officials complete the counting of the remaining ballots.

More than 7.3 million Israelis were eligible to vote in Tuesday’s election, the first since Israel launched its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023.

Şahin Demir