Vote Count Completed, Right-Wing Bloc Stands at 53 Seats
Israel has completed counting all ballots in the election for its 120-seat parliament. Netanyahu’s governing bloc finishes with 53 seats, while the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot has 48. The Arab parties together win a record 19 seats. Likud gains a seat in the final count, while Shas falls to just six • Full Report
Israel’s Central Elections Committee announced that the count of all ballots, including the special double-envelope votes, has been completed. A total of 5,564,764 valid votes and 25,072 invalid ballots were recorded.
The final count brought one change in the distribution of Knesset seats: Likud gained a seat, rising to 27, while Shas lost one and fell to just six.
Despite the shift between the two parties, the overall balance of power remains unchanged. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing bloc has 53 seats, while the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot holds 48. The Arab parties together hold the remaining 19 seats.
Israel’s Knesset has 120 seats, and a government needs the support of at least 61 members to hold a parliamentary majority. Neither of the two main blocs currently has enough seats to form a government on its own.
The result is particularly damaging for Shas, which has fallen to six seats. The party last received six seats in its first Knesset election in 1988 and had not fallen below seven seats in the elections since then. In the 2022 election, Shas won 11 seats, meaning it has now lost nearly half its parliamentary representation.
The largest party remains Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, with 27 seats. Eisenkot’s Yashar party comes in second with 21, followed by Naftali Bennett’s Beyachad with 12.
The Joint List receives 11 seats, while Yair Golan’s Democrats and Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am each win eight.
Yisrael Beiteinu, led by Avigdor Lieberman, receives seven seats, as do Otzma Yehudit and United Torah Judaism.
Shas and the Religious Zionism–Zehut list, led by Bezalel Smotrich and Moshe Feiglin, each finish with six seats.
The special double-envelope ballots, whose counting was completed Thursday, are votes cast by people who cannot vote at their regular polling station. They include soldiers serving away from home, Israeli diplomats stationed abroad, hospitalized patients and prisoners. These ballots are counted separately to protect voter anonymity and prevent duplicate voting.
The Central Elections Committee reported a total of 5,589,836 ballots cast, of which 5,564,764 were valid and 25,072 were disqualified. The results will still undergo the formal election-integrity review before official publication.
Voter turnout reached 77.7%, the highest since 1999. Turnout in the Arab sector stood at approximately 80%, while among IDF service members it reached 79.9%.
With the count complete, the focus now shifts to coalition negotiations. President Isaac Herzog will consult with the elected parties before assigning a candidate the task of forming the next government. With neither bloc holding 61 seats, the negotiations are expected to be complicated, and the possibility of another election cannot be ruled out.
Meanwhile, police addressed allegations raised by Likud claiming that Arab parties were involved in “election theft.”
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