JERUSALEM (AP) – The prospect of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s victory in the last Israeli election seemed out of reach on Thursday, as the near-complete vote count showed him and his right-wing allies failing to win. parliamentary majority.
With 99.5% of the vote counted, the Israeli election commission showed both Netanyahu’s allies and those determined to overthrow him without a clear path to form a government. The rest of the votes without counting are unlikely to change the results.
Tuesday’s vote, Israel’s fourth parliamentary election in two years, was widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu’s condition for governing while under indictment. But neither the pro-Netanyahu camp nor its highly fragmented opponents won 61 of the 120 seats needed in parliament.
Netanyahu and his allies had planned 52 seats compared to 57 for their opponents. At the center are two undecided parties: Yamina, a seven-seat nationalist party led by a lieutenant of Netanyahu, and Raam, an Arab Islamist party that won four seats.. Neither Naftali Bennett of Yamina nor Mansour Abbas of Raam have committed to either camp.
The deep divisions between the various parties would make it difficult to obtain the majority of the parties.
Arab parties have never joined a governing coalition, and for nationalist parties, this alliance is anathema. Bezalel Smotrich, ally of Netanyahu and leader of the far-right religious Zionist party, said Thursday that “a right-wing government will not be established with the support of Abbas. Period. I am not on my watch.”
Gideon Saar, a defector from Netanyahu’s Likud who now leads a six-seat party committed to ousting him, said “it is clear that Netanyahu does not have a majority to form a government under his leadership. Action must now be taken to realize – the possibility of forming a government for change “.
The Likud, who won the majority of seats in any party, withdrew and said the bloc would be undemocratic. He compared Netanyahu’s opponents to the clerical leadership of Iran, an arch-enemy, which controls candidates for high office.
Yohanan Plesner, president of Israel’s Institute of Democracy, said the stalemate is Israel’s “worst political crisis in decades.”
“Clearly, it is very difficult for our political system to produce a decisive result,” Plesner said. He added that the weaknesses inherent in Israel’s electoral system add to the “Netanyahu factor”: a popular prime minister struggling to stay in power while under indictment. “Israelis are divided in the middle of this issue.”
Several Netanyahu opponents have begun discussing the progress of a bill to disqualify a politician accused of being in charge of forming a government, a move aimed at banning the long-time prime minister. A similar bill was introduced after the March 2020 elections, but was never passed.
Netanyahu is being prosecuted for fraud, breach of trust and acceptance of bribes in three cases. He has denied any illegal offense and turned down charges like witch-hunting by biased police and the media.
Despite the charges against him, Netanyahu’s Likud party received about a quarter of the vote, making it the largest party in parliament. A total of 13 parties received enough votes to enter the Knesset – the highest since the 2003 election – and represent a variety of ultra-Orthodox, Arab, secular, nationalist and liberal factions.
The final count of votes was expected to end on Friday.