Deadlock in Israeli elections as no party wins majority

With 99 per cent of votes counted, the elections are at a deadlock

GantzLieberman-Netanyahu-Israel-election-Reuters A combination picture shows leader of Blue and White party, Benny Gantz in Rosh Ha'ayin, Israel September 17, 2019, Avigdor Lieberman, head of Yisrael Beitenu party in Tel Aviv, Israel September 5, 2019 and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu | Reuters

With counting nearly complete in the Israeli legislative elections, neither of the two major parties have attained a majority so far, with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likid party winning 31 seats and Benny Gantz's Blue and White party getting 33.

In an unprecedented move by Netanyahu, the incumbent prime minister offered to form a ‘unity government’ with Gantz, an offer the latter has rejected saying that he would himself “lead a government of national unity and liberalism”.

A national unity government would comprise all the parties—Gantz said that he would be prime minister of such a government on account of his party’s largest share of seats.

Netanyahu had admitted his inability to form a right-wing coalition that could attain a majority. The Israeli legislature, the Knesset, has 120 seats. For a single party or coalition to have a majority, it needs 61 seats.

Ayman Odeh’s mostly-Arab Joint List repeated their 2015 performance to win 13 seats. The Joint List has never, however, joined an Israeli coalition. If Likud and Blue and White form a unity government, Ayman Odeh could become the country's first Arab opposition chief.

The likely kingmaker will be the Yisreal Beiteinu party led by Avigdor Lieberman, with 8 seats. Liberman has vowed to stick to his goal of creating a national unity government comprising all the secular parties. Lieberman would not form one with the ultra-Orthodox and religious-Zionist parties.

At present, the centre-left grouping of parties that includes Blue and White could manage 44 seats (without the Joint List) while a centre-right bloc including Likid would manage around 55, according to Haaretz.

With the stand-off likely to continue as the largest parties negotiate with each other, there is a possibility of another election, which would be the third this year after the present one and the April elections that also ended in stalemate.

More votes are still being counted, with the final results to be declared only on Wednesday. Israel’s election committee said that the results so far did not include 14 polling stations where verifications were ongoing.

With inputs from PTI

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