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Israel Final Election results: Netanyahu's Likud scores decisive victory in Israeli election

Highlights of Israel Election Result:

Likud poised to form government after winning 30 seats

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party has scored a dramatic election victory surging past its main rival, the centre-left Zionist Union, to win most seats in the Knesset.

• Opposition leader Isaac Herzog calls Netanyahu to congratulate him
• Netanyahu had appealed to right wing by rejecting Palestinian statehood

• Likud said it it expects to form a government over the next two to three weeks. It has spoken to parties likely to be part of the new ruling coalition, including Kulana, the centrist party of former finance minister Moshe Kahlon, and a series of smaller right wing parties.
• The opposition Zionist Union, which secured 24 seats, has conceded defeat. Its leader Isaac Herzog said the party would continue to be an alternative to Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud.
• There has been muted international response to Likud’s victory. Iran said it expects business as usual under Netanyahu’s next government. One of Europe’s most senior diplomats, Sweden’s Carl Bildt, said the result risked a “profound crisis on the Palestinian issue”.
• Netanyahu declared a “great victory” after exit polls had earlier predicted that the result would be tie. He also struck a conciliatory note in a late-night speech, promising to protect the interests of Israelis “Jewish and non-Jewish” and touching on social reform.

Voter turnout surpassed 2013 levels before polls closed, with 71.8% of Israel’s 5.8 million eligible citizens having voted, the most since 1999. An estimated 67-68% of Israeli-Arabs voted, up from 54% in 2013.

• With nearly 99.5% votes counted, Likud ahead winning 30 seats
• Exit polls had put Herzog and Netanyahu at dead heat with 27 seats
• Netanyahu had appealed to right wing by rejecting Palestinian statehood
• Herzog refuses to concede defeat; says ‘still an open game’
• Arab Joint List, Yesh Atid and Kulanu vie for influence in outcome

The Israeli election results are looking to be pretty good news for incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, judging by an average of three exit polls released late on Tuesday.

This chart, showing the number of seats each party is projected to hold in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, demonstrates why this is looking good for Netanyahu:

src:http://www.vox.com/

With nearly 99.5% votes counted, Likud ahead winning 30 seats

Near final results of Israel's 2015 election, with 99% of votes counted. March 18, 2015

 The Central Elections Committee presents the results of the 2015 Knesset elections, in percentage of total votes and number of votes.

 Likud leads with 29 Knesset seats, pulling firmly ahead of the Zionist Union, which has 24.

• The Joint Arab List comes in third with 14 seats, followed by

• With 90% of votes counted, the latest tally is:

• 80% votes counted: Likud on 30 seats; Zionist Union 24

Some 80% of votes cast have now been counted, putting Likud on 30 seats and Zionist Union on 24. Centre-left Yesh Atid currently has 11 seats, just ahead of Moshe Kahlon’s centrist Kulanu on 10. Before polls close and exit numbers begin to trickle in, a summary of Israel’s snap election as it’s happened so far.

Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu spent nearly all Tuesday in a final ferocious push to win over conservative partisans and disaffected supporters of his Likud party. “The rightwing government is in danger,” he told voters, “Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls.”

Isaac Herzog, Netanyahu’s main rival and co-leader of the center-left Zionist Union party, also campaigned on election day, telling voters to “join the upheaval” and vote for “a prime minister who cares for civilians, who doesn’t incite … so we don’t get a radical government with Netanyahu.”

• Voter turnout surpassed 2013 levels before polls closed, with 65.7% of Israel’s 5.8 million eligible citizens voting as of 8pm local time. Polls close at 10pm local time (4pm ET; 8pm GMT), at which point exit numbers will begin to be announced.

Economic inequality and the high cost of living joined national security and the Palestinian territories on voters’ list of concerns, with Herzog and Netanyahu seizing on the economy and security, respectively, as their primary issues.

Israelis voted by party for who they want to have a majority in the 120-seat Knesset, which vote will determine by percent how many seats each party wins – and the math of building a coalition and selecting a prime minister.

Final polls projected a four-seat advantage for the Zionist Union over Likud, but both parties would need to ally with centrists and unaffiliated parties to build a new government. President Reuven Rivlin will decide which party leads the building effort.

Parties such as the Arab Joint List, Kulanu and Yesh Atid maneuvered behind the scenes as potential kingmakers for Likud and Zionist Union. Joint List leader Ayman Odeh urged Israeli-Arabs to vote and said Israelis should treat the election as a referendum on Netanyahu, who is seeking his fourth term as prime minister.

Voter turnout passes 2013 levels

• As of 8pm local time – with plenty of time left for Israelis to vote – voter turnout has reached 65.7% and surpassed its corresponding level in 2013, of 63.9%.

Turnout is now at its highest since the 1999 election, Tablet’s Yair Rosenberg points out, and the Jerusalem Post’s political correspondent Gil Hoffman shames Americans a little for their lack of electoral enthusiasm.

• Of Israel’s 5.8 million eligible voters, 1.7 million are Israeli-Arabs. In 2013, 67.8% of the total population turned out to vote; of eligible Israeli-Arabs, 56% voted.

3:23 A.M. With 60 percent of votes counted, Likud leads with 23.73 percent over Zionist Union's 19.07 percent. Yesh Atid stands at 8.92 percent, the Joint List at 9.63 percent, Kulanu at 7.53 percent, Habayit Hayehudi at 6.4 percent, Shas at 5.88 percent, Yisrael Beiteinu at 5.26 percent, United Torah Judaism at 5.15 percent, Meretz at 3.95 percent and Yahad at 3.04 percent.

src:theguardian,haaretz,israelnationalnews.

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