Tel Aviv: Israel’s parliamentary election has left government formation uncertain, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc falling short of a majority and allegations of electoral fraud and foreign interference drawing pushback from election officials and the Shin Bet security agency.
Netanyahu’s Likud-led bloc won 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, Israel’s parliament, while the opposition bloc secured 48. The two Arab-led parties won the remaining 19 seats, according to the final tally published by the Central Elections Committee (CEC) early Friday.
The opposition bloc comprises Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party with 21 seats, Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad party with 12, Yair Golan’s Democrats with eight and Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu with seven.
The Arab-led Ra’am and Joint List parties won 11 and eight seats, respectively.
Turnout in Tuesday’s election was 77.9 per cent, the highest in decades, with 5,716,665 votes cast, the CEC said.
The results are to be presented to President Isaac Herzog November 4, after the committee completes any final inquiries into errors or complaints. Herzog will then meet party leaders, who will recommend the lawmaker they believe should be tasked with forming the next government.
Netanyahu’s bloc is eight seats short of the 61 needed for a parliamentary majority. His refusal to cooperate with the Arab-led parties further complicates the formation of a government.
The election outcome has also been clouded by allegations of electoral fraud and foreign interference levelled by Netanyahu and his Likud party, which has claimed that the vote was “stolen” and sought investigations into alleged bribery, threats, violence and multiple voting.
However, acting CEC Director General Dean Livne rejected claims of systematic violations, saying the election had been conducted lawfully.
“The Knesset elections were conducted lawfully. The integrity of the elections at polling stations was rigorously safeguarded, and to the best of our knowledge, there is no basis for allegations of systematic violations of election integrity,” Livne wrote in a letter to Yesh Atid lawmaker Vladimir Beliak, a member of the CEC.
In an interview with Channel 12 News, Livne said he did not believe allegations of foreign influence would affect the election results. Votes could be invalidated only if direct proof was found, he said.
In a statement issued after publishing the final results, the CEC reiterated that the investigation into suspected foreign interference would not affect the outcome. “Reports published throughout the day are entirely unfounded,” Livne said.
He also stressed that the investigation would not affect the final results submitted to the president and did not concern any particular sector of the population.
The Shin Bet said its investigation into suspected foreign interference was “limited in scope” and was based on its own intelligence collection, not information supplied by any political party or actor.
The agency also confirmed that its chief, David Zini, had met Netanyahu, Lapid and Eisenkot Wednesday to brief them on the main suspicions under investigation.
The developments followed CEC chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg’s decision to formally ask Zini to investigate suspicions of improper influence through funding from foreign entities allegedly acting against Israeli interests. He requested the findings within a week.
The Shin Bet – Israel’s domestic intelligence and security agency, responsible for counterterrorism, counter-espionage and protecting the country’s internal security – has stressed that the investigation did not cast suspicion on an entire community that had voted legally and democratically.
Hebrew-language media reports said Likud suspected Qatar might have provided funds to organisations involved in mobilising Arab voters. Some reports also mentioned Turkiye as a possible source.
Qatar denied the allegations, calling them “ridiculous and dangerous”, while Turkiye described claims of its involvement as “entirely baseless” and part of a disinformation campaign.
Police have also disputed Likud’s broader claim that the election was “stolen”.
A police source told Hebrew media outlets that election day had passed with “very few irregular incidents” concerning electoral integrity. There was no investigative or intelligence-based substantiation for claims that the vote had been stolen, the source said.
Likud had earlier said it was submitting “hundreds of testimonies” and other evidence to the police, Shin Bet and the CEC.
Its allegations included claims that cash was distributed alongside Ra’am ballot slips, that people voted twice and that the number of voters did not match the number of ballot envelopes.
Netanyahu’s opponents have accused him of using the allegations to delegitimise Arab voters and undermine the election outcome.
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