JERUSALEM (The Thursday Times) — Counting began in Israel’s general election on Tuesday night after a record 77.7 per cent of voters turned out, and the leader of the Arab-led Ra’am party said that on the numbers so far “there is no government”, revealing that both blocs had sought his support.
Only partial results were available in the first hours: 15 polling stations had reported 2,670 votes by 12.18am local time, Channel 12 said, far too few to show a trend. The Central Elections Committee is expected to announce official results by Wednesday evening, with the final tally due by Friday.
‘There is no government’
“With the numbers we have now, there is no government,” Mansour Abbas, leader of Ra’am, also known as the United Arab List, told Channel 12. He said he hoped the final count would allow the opposition bloc and his party together to reach the 61 seats needed for a majority.
Abbas said both main blocs had approached his party before and after the vote. He had spoken to representatives of the opposition after the exit polls, he said, and had been approached by a “very senior right-wing member” days before the election. Both camps had publicly ruled out joining forces with Arab-led parties before polling day. The public broadcaster Kan’s exit poll projected seven seats for Ra’am and 11 for the Joint List.
Netanyahu still silent
More than two hours after the exit polls showed his bloc short of a majority, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not spoken publicly. Avigdor Lieberman urged Likud to remove him, while Netanyahu’s allies called the opposition’s celebrations premature. Gadi Eisenkot, whose Yashar party is projected to be the second-largest, had not yet addressed supporters either.
