Wednesday January 23; The Israeli Central Election Committee announced that final results of the general Israeli election that was held Tuesday, leading to a marginal victory of the Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu coalition.The coalition between the Likud Party, headed by Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the extreme right wing Israel Our Home Part headed by Avigdor Lieberman, managed to garner 31 seats despite polls that predicted the coalition would garner 42 seats, Israeli Ynet News reported.
The Ynet added that Netanyahu celebrated the victory in a speech he gave shortly after midnight, thanking those who placed their confidence to lead Israel once again.
One of the surprises in this election is 19 seats going to the Yesh Atid (There Is Future) Party, headed by journalist Yair Lapid. The 19 seats placed his party as the second largest party in the Israeli Knesset.
The third largest party in the Knesset is the Likud Party headed by Ehud Barak; the party managed to garner 15 seats.
The Hatnua party headed by Tzipi Livni suffered a sharp blow by only winning six seats.
Meanwhile, the Meretz Party managed to garner six seats compared to three in the last election.
The Ynet said that after %99.5 of the votes counted for, the election outcome is;
Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu: 31 (Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman)
Yesh Atid (There is Future); 19 seats.
The Labor Party; 15 seats.
Shas (Shomrei Sfarad, lit. Sfarad’s guards of the Torah) – religious Sephardic party; 11
Habayit Hayehudi (The Jewish Home); 11.
United Torah Judaism: 7
Hatnua: 6 (Tzipi Livni).
Meretz: 6
United Arab List-Taal: 5
Hadash (The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) 4
Balad: (National Democratic Assembly) 3
Kadima: 2
The outcome of the general election granted the Israeli right wing parties 60 seats, while what Israel calls “center-left” parties managed to garner 52 seats.
Netanyahu will be forming a government coalition that could be walking on thin ice should the Arab parties and the center-left parties unite their power against Netanyahu and his coalition with Lieberman.
But Netanyahu looks at the Yesh Atid Party, that garnered 19 seats, as “true coalition partner in the new government”, the Ynet added.
It is believed that approximately %66. 6 of the entire eligible voters cast their votes, as for voter turnout among the soldiers, the percentage stood at %80.
Only 40.000 out of the 3.767 million eligible voters have been disqualified.
In total, Arab parties managed to garner 12 seats, 5 of them for the United Arab List, and 5 for Hadash.
Despite the outcome of the elections and the low turnout in the Arab sector, the outcome of the election was seen as positive for the Arab sector with one extra seat.
The biggest defeat was for the Kadima party that was only able to get 2 seats, especially when taking into consideration that, during the last election, the party that was headed by Tzipi Livni (Former Foreign Minister) was the second largest party.
