Foreign
FINAL results from the March 25 elections in Israel, the fourth time the country has gone to the polls in the last two years, showed voters once again evenly split, giving no candidate a clear path to victory.
As has become the norm, the split lies essentially between a bloc supporting center-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a group of other parties hoping to oust the long-serving leader.
The results were officially released on Tuesday by the election commission and were to be handed over to President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday.
There are 120 seats in the Knesset, meaning 61 are needed for a majority. In all, 13 parties will be represented in the new Knesset.
Netanyahu’s Likud party again got the most votes, with 30. Next came the centrist Atid party of Yair Lapid, which has ruled out a coalition with Likud. It got 17. The conservative religious Shas party came in third place, with nine mandates.
That presages another round of tough negotiations. The last election resulted in a broad and wobbly coalition of political enemies that would have seen them taking turns in the prime minister’s office.
It collapsed after only a few months amid a fight about the budget. Few have ruled out a fifth election later this year.
A key factor would be the course charted by Raam, an Arab party, that had reportedly considered supporting a Likud-run coalition without joining it, under the condition that a far-right politician who might be in the coalition be blocked from any ministerial position.
Such a grouping would be odd, given Netanyahu’s past verbal attacks on Arab parties and voters. However, he spent this election cycle trying to build support with them.
Rivlin will begin talks with the various party leaders on Monday.
He has until April 7, to decide which party leader will get the first chance to try to form a coalition.(dpa/NAN)
– Mar. 31, 2021 @ 9:26 GMT
Tags: Israeli vote count complete no clear winner once again
