Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu has already begun to organize his incoming coalition after the right-wing bloc won a decisive victory in this week’s national elections.
As of Thursday morning, the Netanyahu bloc had won 65 out of 120 seats in the Knesset – a clear majority that will allow the former prime minister and opposition leader to form a new government.
Netanyahu has begun the process of negotiating with his presumed coalition partners over ministerial and other high-ranking government positions, although he will not receive the formal presidential mandate to form a government until next week.
It is believed that Netanyahu is seeking to appoint former Israel Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer to a ministerial-level post. Netanyahu and Dermer have had close ties for many years.
President Isaac Herzog will receive the official results of the election on November 9 and has until November 16 to task a lawmaker with forming the new government, following consultations with each party that crossed the electoral threshold.
It is believed that he intends to appoint a new Knesset Speaker by November 15, a swift replacement for the current speaker appointed by caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
Israel’s Central Elections Committee announced early Thursday that 4,325,033 ballots – 89 percent of the total vote – had been counted thus far. Of those, the Likud party had one million votes – more than 23 percent of eligible voters.
The current count stands as follows:
Likud 32
Yesh Atid 24
Religious Zionism Party (RZP) 14
National Unity 12
Shas 11
United Torah Judaism (UTJ) 8
Yisrael Beytenu 5
Ra’am 5
Hadash-Ta’al 5
Labor 4
The far right Meretz party (3.19 %), extremist Israeli Arab Balad party (3.02%) and the center-right Jewish Home (1.16%) parties all failed to cross the electoral threshold.
More than 600,000 “double envelopes” from diplomats serving abroad, military personnel, hospital staff and patients, prisoners, residents of senior citizen and assisted living facilities and those who voted at polling stations for people with physical disabilities were still in the process of being counted.
The remainder of the count is expected to be completed later in the day.
