Final Israeli Vote Count Leaves Netanyahu Bloc With 53 Seats

Israel's Central Elections Committee released the full seat allocation for the 26th Knesset overnight Thursday into Friday after completing double-envelope ballot counting and initial polling-station checks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's outgoing coalition bloc has 53 seats, the opposition bloc 48 and the Arab parties 19. The allocation remains subject to integrity checks and possible corrections. Likud won 27 seats, Yashar 21, Together 12 and the Joint List 11. The Democrats and Ra'am each secured 8; Yisrael Beiteinu, Otzma Yehudit and United Torah Judaism each took 7; Shas and Religious Zionism each received 6. Turnout was 77.9%. Officials counted 5,716,665 ballots, including 5,690,778 valid votes and 25,887 invalid ones. The electoral threshold was 3.25%. The committee will recheck polling-station figures over the coming days, correct typing and copying errors, and examine submissions from the public and candidate lists. Subject to minor corrections, the results are scheduled to be presented to President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday, November 4. Acting committee director Dean Livne also addressed the parallel election investigation, speaking for committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg. Livne said it followed classified intelligence supplied by the Shin Bet director and did not concern a particular sector. With Sohlberg's approval, the intelligence's essentials were also shown to Netanyahu, opposition leader Yair Lapid and Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot. Referring to the investigation, Livne said: "It will not affect the final results submitted to the president." Findings will go to the chairman when the investigation concludes, with public updates subject to security restrictions.