The Likud party of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and its allies came first in the legislative elections, winning 61 seats among the 120 in the Knesset, according to exit polls, Tuesday evening at 10 p.m. (HL).
According to these polls, carried out by three major Israeli channels, Netanyahu’s party and its allies won 61 seats out of the 120 seats in parliament. As for the coalition led by outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid, it won 55 seats, according to the polls.
Along with his allies, Netanyahu’s party is on the threshold of a majority set at 61 seats.
The far-right alliance of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir came in third place with 14 seats, neck and neck with the center-right formation of Benny Gantz (11 to 13 seats), d after the polls.
Unlike previous polls, the Israeli Arab parties presented themselves in dispersed order under three lists: Raam (moderate Islamist), Hadash-Taal (secular) and Balad (nationalist).
Mansour Abbas’s Raam party, which had backed Yair Lapid’s outgoing coalition, won five seats, according to polls.
The Hadash-Taal list, meanwhile, won four, while Balad picked up none.
The Labor Party (Avoda) is credited with five to six seats while the Meretz party has four to five, according to the polls.
The ultra-Orthodox parties, allies of Mr. Netanyahu, won 10 seats for Shas (Sephardic) and seven for United Torah Judaism (Ashkenazi), according to these polls.