JERESULAM, April 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Isreal Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has all but secured a 5th term on Wednesday, after more than 95 percent of the votes gave the right-wing bloc a 10-seat lead over the left.
Netanyahu’s Likud tied with Benny Gantz’s Kahol Lavan party with 35 seats each. Both leaders made victory speeches after the exit polls, vowing to be “everyone’s prime minister.”
But almost all right-wing parties have said they would recommend to the president that Netanyahu form the next ruling coalition. Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked’s Hayamin Hehadash, as well as the far-right Zehut party led by Moshe Feiglin and Orly Levi-Abekasis’ Gesher did not make it past the electoral threshold.
In the right-wing bloc, the parties that made it into the Knesset are Likud, United Torah Judaism, Shas, Yisrael Beiteinu, Right-wing Union and Kulanu. In the center-left bloc, the parties that made it into the Knesset are Kahol Lavan, Hadash-Ta’al, Labor, Meretz and United Arab List-Balad.
Turnout has been historically low in the Arab community, according to pollsters. Netanyahu’s Likud party provided activists with 1,200 hidden cameras “to monitor” Arab polling stations — a move that prompted Israel’s Central Elections Committee to file a police complaint.
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