International • • • 🌿 Progressive

Votantes de espaldas depositan su voto en urnas transparentes en un centro de votación en Israel
Centro de votación en Israel durante la jornada electoral, con votantes de espaldas frente a las urnas. · Erick Prometeo Media

Israel exit polls: Eisenkot bloc leads Netanyahu, no majority

Preliminary exit polls in Israel give the bloc of Gadi Eisenkot between 52 and 53 seats against 50 for the alliance of Benjamin Netanyahu, with neither…

--- The context --- Israel voted on Tuesday in its first national election since the October 2023 attacks. The last national election, held in November 2022, was the fifth in three and a half years. Everything known so far comes from preliminary exit polls, not from official results. No Israeli party has ever won the 61 seats of an outright majority on its own, so the next government will come from a negotiated coalition. --- The facts --- The three main exit polls, released after voting closed at 22.00 local time on Tuesday, place the bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot at between 52 and 53 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, against 50 for the alliance of Benjamin Netanyahu. Neither bloc reaches the 61 seats required for a majority. Turnout approached 74% by 20.00, according to the central elections commission. The exit polls do not cover roughly the last hour of voting, so the picture can still change, and official results will be known in the coming days. --- The positions --- Eisenkot, aged 66, leader of the Yashar party and a former military chief, described the result in indirect terms as a vote of no confidence in Netanyahu and said in indirect terms that he would act to replace his government. Yair Golan, of the Democrats, argued in indirect terms that the public had dismissed the Netanyahu government, and Yair Lapid celebrated in indirect terms a defeat for the governing bloc. A channel aligned with Netanyahu instead projected 60 combined seats for the governing camp, at odds with the three main exit polls. The two Israeli Arab parties won between 17 and 18 seats and said they would back Eisenkot to some degree, although both leaders have for now ruled out a formal alliance with them, who could sustain a minority government from outside or by abstaining. --- What remains unknown --- President Isaac Herzog will consult party leaders and ask the candidate with the best chances to try to form a coalition, with a maximum period of six weeks. Smaller parties will carry disproportionate weight in that bargaining process. If nobody forms a majority, a new election would be called in the coming months and Netanyahu would remain interim prime minister, without authority to push through major policy changes. --- Unanswered questions --- Will official results confirm the lead of 52 to 53 seats for the Eisenkot bloc? Will the Israeli Arab parties sustain an Eisenkot minority government from outside or by abstaining? Will any candidate gather 61 supporters within six weeks, or will there be another election? --- EPM analysis --- The opposition lead is narrow and reversible: it depends on last-hour votes the polls do not cover and on support without a formal alliance. With 17 to 18 seats, the Israeli Arab parties become the arbiters of the contest. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, the preliminary exit polls describe a majority rejection of the Netanyahu government, but they do not yet deliver an alternative government, because the Eisenkot lead of 52 to 53 seats falls short of the 61 required and depends on Arab support without any formal alliance. Prudence requires waiting for the official results in the coming days before proclaiming a change of power, and the six weeks of coalition talks will decide whether the electoral lead becomes a stable coalition or another early election for Israel.
📤 Share on Telegram

¿Te gustó este artículo? Recibe cobertura global en tu correo.

Suscríbete gratis / Subscribe free