Posted on 11/03/22
| News Source: WSJ
Benjamin Netanyahu won a decisive victory in the country’s fifth election in under four years, nearly final vote results showed on Thursday, pulling off a political comeback by successfully uniting his right-wing and religious nationalist bloc.
With 99% of votes counted by Thursday, Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party maintained its lead with 32 seats and his right-wing religious and nationalist bloc was on course to win 64 in the 120-seat parliament, or Knesset, according to Israeli national broadcaster Kan.
Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party remained on track to win 24 seats and his bloc of right-wing, left-wing and Arab parties were on course to secure 51. An alliance of communists and Palestinian nationalists that has said it won’t join any government won another five seats.
In the coming days, Israeli President Isaac Herzog is set to choose the leader he believes has the best chance of assembling a governing coalition, usually the head of the party that wins the most seats or receives the most recommendations to form a government from fellow lawmakers. That person has up to six weeks to try to cobble together a majority coalition that includes the support of smaller parties.