Netanyahu Leads Israel Election After 97% of Votes Counted

Netanyahu is leading in the Israeli elections with 97 per cent of the votes counted

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party is leading in the country’s parliamentary elections with 97.3 per cent of the votes counted. It is provisionally set to win 27 seats in the Knesset, whilst the ruling coalition as a whole is set to win 53 seats, according to data from the Central Election Commission.

Benjamin Netanyahu Photo: BBC

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As the votes were counted, Likud strengthened its position, whilst the ultra-Orthodox Shas party lost one seat and now holds six seats. The opposition ‘Change Bloc’ has provisionally secured 48 seats, according to RBC.

The Yashar party has secured 21 seats, Beyahad 12, and the United List 11. The Democrats and the Ra’am party are each claiming eight seats.

Israel Beiteinu, Otzma Yehudit and United Torah Judaism are each provisionally set to receive seven seats. Religious Zionism and Zeut are set to receive six seats each.

It should be noted that the election took place on 27 October — the first since the attack on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas in October 2023. Voter turnout stood at 77.7 per cent.

Following the publication of exit polls, which showed a slight lead for the opposition, the leader of the ‘Yashar’ party, Gadi Eizenkot, vowed to bring about a change in Netanyahu’s government.

The day before, Likud accused Arab parties of electoral irregularities, alleging voter bribery, intimidation and ballot tampering.

Today, 29 October, the chairman of Israel’s Central Elections Committee, Noam Zolberg, instructed the head of the General Security Service (Shin Bet), David Zini, to investigate reports of foreign funding that may have been used to distort the election results.

This story was translated with the assistance of artificial intelligence.

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