Binyamin Netanyahu is set to be Israel’s next prime minister as head of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history.
With roughly 70 per cent of votes counted, Mr Netanyahu’s conservative Likud and its likely religious and far-right allies were on pace to control a majority in parliament after Israel’s fifth election in less than four years.
“We are on the brink of a very big victory,” a smiling Mr Netanyahu told cheering supporters at his Likud party election headquarters.
His voice hoarse from weeks of campaigning across the country, Mr Netanyahu vowed to form a “stable, national government,” as the crowd interrupted him singing “Bibi, king of Israel.”
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Exit polls from the three main TV stations after Tuesday’s election, Israel’s fifth in less than four years, had predicted his right-wing and religious bloc would win a wafer-thin majority of 61 or 62 seats in the 120-seat Knesset parliament.
However, pollsters warned that the race was close and the actual election results will only be known on Wednesday. Balad, a radical Arab party, is just under the minimum threshold to enter parliament and if it passes the threshold Mr Netanyahu could lose his majority.
Parties from the centre, right and left together with the United Arab List (Ra’am), which together make up the anti-Netanyahu bloc, were projected to win 54 or 55 seats. The remaining four seats were projected to go to another Arab party, Hadash-Ta’al, not part of the anti-Netanyahu bloc but a possible supporter of an anti-Netanyahu coalition from outside the government.
The voter turnout was surprisingly high, more than 72 per cent, for an electorate suffering from voter fatigue.
Mr Netanyahu, already Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, had failed to clinch a Knesset majority in the last four rounds and Tuesday’s vote was seen as his last realistic chance to return to power.
Mr Netanyahu’s Likud was projected to be the largest party with 30 to 31 seats, followed by the centrist Yesh Atid, headed by caretaker prime minister Yair Lapid, with 22 to 24 seats.
But the surprise package of this election was the far-right Religious Zionist party, which came 3rd with 14 to 15 seats and, as Likud’s senior coalition partner, will wield significant power and be able to demand senior portfolios.
The party – which gained the support of many young voters‚ West Bank settlers and Orthodox Jews – is headed by Bezalel Smotrich, but number two on the list, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has attracted most attention with his provocative anti-Arab rhetoric and demands to be appointed Israel’s next public security minister in charge of the police.
Mr Netanyahu, during the campaign, promised to form a stable right-wing government that will govern for four years, but his projected victory at the head of a narrow coalition is unlikely to bring the political stability that so many Israelis crave for after years of deadlock.
It is unlikely that any of his opponents will be willing to join a coalition government as long as he remains head of the Likud.
Mr Netanyahu’s opponents fear his government will undermine the independence of the judiciary, allowing for the corruption allegations against him to be overturned.
Mr Netanyahu is accused of fraud and breach of trust in three separate graft cases and bribery in one of them in a trial that is expected to continue for at least another two years.
He denies all the charges against him claiming he is a victim of a witch hunt by the left, the media, the judiciary and law enforcement agencies in order to keep him from power. – Additional reporting: Reuters
