WorldPosted at: Oct 29 2026 5:52PM

Jerusalem, Oct 29 (UNI) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition was projected to win 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, against 48 for the opposition bloc led by Yashar party chief Gadi Eisenkot, with nearly 90% of ballots counted on Wednesday.
So far, neither side is close to the 61 seats required for a parliamentary majority, leaving the country facing difficult coalition negotiations or even possibly new elections.
The two main Arab-led parties, the Joint List and Ra’am, were projected to win a combined historic high of 19 seats, marking a substantial increase from their current total of 10, in turn giving them the power of possible kingmakers. However, several opposition parties have ruled out working with them.
The results differed from most opinion polls in the weeks before the election, which had generally placed Eisenkot’s bloc ahead, as well as exit polls released when voting ended at 10pm on Tuesday. Those projections had given the opposition a lead of two or three seats.
However, as counting continued overnight and into Wednesday, Netanyahu’s Likud party and its coalition partners moved ahead.
In an update shortly after 9pm on Wednesday, the Central Elections Committee said 89.8% of votes had been counted, covering almost all regular ballot boxes. Although the results remained provisional, officials did not expect the figures to change dramatically.
The committee said the remaining ordinary ballots required additional oversight. A further 430,000 to 480,000 double-envelope ballots were still to be counted, with the process scheduled to begin at 1am on Thursday and expected to finish by Thursday evening.
These ballots are cast primarily by soldiers, prisoners, diplomats stationed abroad and people unable to vote at their designated polling stations. Officials must verify that each voter has not already voted elsewhere.
The committee cautioned that the estimate remained preliminary while ballots continued to arrive and be processed. The full count was expected on Thursday afternoon, with the final official results due to be published on November 4.
With each Knesset seat estimated to represent around 40,000 votes, the outstanding ballots could affect the final distribution of seats, although the overall political balance was not expected to change substantially.
By Wednesday afternoon, Likud was the largest party with 26 seats, followed by Yashar with 21. Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad and Yousef Jabareen’s Joint List were each projected to win 12 seats, while the left-wing Democrats were on eight.
Otzma Yehudit, Shas, United Torah Judaism, Ra’am and Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu were each projected to win seven seats. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism was on six.
Three smaller parties remained below the 3.25% electoral threshold: Yoaz Hendel’s Reservists-Economic party had 2.63% of the vote, Ofer Winter’s People of Israel had 1.61%, and Charedi Public had 0.19%.
The projected distribution left Netanyahu’s bloc, comprising Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism, Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism, with 53 seats, eight short of a majority. The coalition currently holds 68 seats, marking a substantial decline.
Eisenkot’s bloc, comprising Yashar, B’Yachad, The Democrats and Yisrael Beytenu, had 48 seats, leaving it 13 short of a majority.
The Arab-led parties’ combined 19 seats could provide enough support to bring an anti-Netanyahu government above the majority threshold. However, most parties in Eisenkot’s bloc, apart from The Democrats, have ruled out co-operation with Ra’am or the Joint List, complicating efforts to form an alternative government.
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