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Funcionarios contando papeletas de noche en un colegio electoral, con urnas y actas sobre la mesa
Imagen alusiva al escrutinio nocturno: conteo de papeletas y actas en un colegio electoral. · Erick Prometeo Media

Likud leads Israel count with 22.2% as 28% is tallied

With 28% counted, Netanyahu's Likud leads with 22.2%, followed by Yashar!

--- The context --- Israel voted on Tuesday in general elections and the count moved through the early hours of Wednesday. No bloc held the majority needed to govern. --- The facts --- With 28% counted, Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud stands in first place with 22.2% of the vote, followed by Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar! with 15.4% and the Juntos formation of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid with 8.2%. The count reaches 1.6 million ballots from 3,906 polling stations, out of a total of 5,695,682 votes cast in 12,018 polling stations. Final turnout reached 77.7%, almost eight points above 2022 and the highest since 1999, with a strong rise in voting in Arab cities. --- The positions --- Netanyahu, leading Likud, asked in the early hours of Wednesday to wait for the final election results, but backed a right-wing government without the Arab and anti-Zionist parties, according to his remarks. The partial count and exit polls point to Likud as the winner, but they do not give its bloc the necessary majority of 61 seats to govern. --- What remains unknown --- The opposition bloc would surpass Netanyahu's bloc in seats, but it would not hold the necessary majority either, according to the projections. Arab parties stand as the key to a possible opposition government and, according to exit polls, could reach 19 seats. --- Unanswered questions --- Will the full count confirm Likud in first place with its partial 22.2%? Will any bloc reach the 61 seats needed to govern without broad pacts? Will Arab parties accept being the key to a possible opposition government? When will the final results of this election be known? --- EPM analysis --- The central political fact is not only who is first, but the distance to a majority: neither Netanyahu's bloc nor the opposition reaches it in the projections. Counting may extend past midday on Wednesday in Israel; in 2022, final results were made public at about 14:00 local time (12:00 GMT). 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, Israel is entering a long negotiation because Likud's first place does not equal a guaranteed government: without 61 seats of its own, every pact will weigh as much as the counted vote. Turnout of 77.7%, the highest since 1999, lends legitimacy to the result, but it also hardens each bloc's mandate. The Arab key, projected at 19 seats according to exit polls, turns parliamentary arithmetic into the real election beginning now.
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