Home Archive 17/September/2019 10:58 PM

Exit polls in Israel show another deadlock in forming a new coalition government

 

JERUSALEM, Tuesday, September 17, 2019 (WAFA) – Exit polls in the Israeli elections showed the two largest parties, the Likud, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, and Blue/White headed by Benny Gantz, getting almost equal number of seats in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, but that neither party can muster enough seats to form a coalition government.

The exit polls showed the two parties getting between 31 and 33 seats each, with the Likud putting together a coalition of 57 seats and Blue/While getting 55 seats in the 120-seat Knesset with their coalition partners in the smaller parties, which is not enough to surpass the half-plus-one mark for the government to get the confidence vote.

The remaining eight seats went to Avigdor Lieberman’s party, Yisrael Betinu, who can tilt the balance in either direction, but it is not yet clear if he would support the far right-wing under Netanyahu or the centrist Gantz or neither one.

The Arab List came third with 13 seats. However, neither of the big parties is expected to join forces with the Arabs in Israel, who make up 20 percent of the total population.

It will be few days before the Israeli president asks either Netanyahu or Gantz to form a government.

Netanyahu tried to form a government five months ago. But when he failed, new elections were called for, whose results seem to be similar to the previous elections.

M.K.

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