Early vote count shows Netanyahu in tight race
20 September, 2019
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in a battle for political survival after exit polls following Tuesday’s election showed the race too close to call and the Israeli leader’s decade-long grip on power slipping.
Netanyahu’s main election challenger, centrist Benny Gantz, said on Wednesday it appeared from the exit polls that Israel’s longest-serving leader was defeated but that only official results would tell.
In his own speech to right-wing Likud party faithful, Netanyahu, sipping water frequently and speaking in a hoarse voice, made no claim of victory or concession of defeat, saying he was awaiting a vote tally.
Netanyahu’s appearance in the dead of night at Likud election headquarters was a far cry from his triumphant declaration five months ago that he had won a close election. His failure to form a government after the April ballot led to the new election on Tuesday.
Gantz, a former armed forces chief, beamed with confidence as he told a rally of his Blue and White Party that it appeared “we fulfilled our mission,” and he pledged to work towards formation of a unity government.
Netanyahu, he said, apparently “did not succeed in his mission” to win a fifth term.
“We will await the actual results,” Gantz, 60, said.
The final election results can take more than a week, but partial results are published by the Knesset as the vote-counting proceeds, so a clearer picture will likely emerge within a day before the final tally.
By 6 a.m. about a quarter of the votes had been counted.
Revised surveys by Israeli TV stations, several hours after polls closed, gave Likud 30 to 33 of parliament’s 120 seats, a slight drop from earlier forecasts, versus 32 to 34 for Blue and White.
Neither had enough support, at first glance, for a governing coalition of 61 legislators, and Netanyahu’s ally-turned-rival, former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, emerged as a likely kingmaker as head of the far-right Yisrael Beitenu party.
The updated polls showed that without Yisrael Beitenu’s projected eight to nine seats, stalemate could ensue: Likud would have the support of only up to 55 legislators, down from 57 in the earlier exit polls, for a right-wing coalition. Blue and White could enlist the backing of no more than 59 for a centre-left government.
Netanyahu, who highlighted his close relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump during the campaign, said in his 3 a.m. speech at Likud election headquarters in Tel Aviv that he intended to establish a “strong Zionist government” that would reflect the views of “many of the nation’s people.”
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