Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leading in a tight election in Israel, but is still short of a governing majority in the third national ballot in less than a year.
Netanyahu, head of the right-wing Likud party, claimed victory in Monday’s vote over his main challenger, former armed forces chief Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White, after exit polls projected his party had come out on top.
But with nearly three-quarters of the votes counted, Netanyahu appeared three seats short of a majority in Israel’s parliament, a gap signalling there may be deadlock yet again.
A win for Netanyahu, 70, after inconclusive ballots in April and September, would be testimony to the political durability of Israel’s longest-serving leader, who fought the latest campaign under the shadow of a looming corruption trial.
It would also pave the way for Netanyahu to make good on his pledge to annex, after the election, Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and the region’s Jordan Valley, under a peace plan presented by US President Donald Trump.
Palestinians have rejected the proposal.
With about 72 per cent of votes counted, Likud led Blue and White by 35 seats to 32. Together with right-wing and religious parties, Netanyahu could build a 58-seat coalition, short of a majority in the 120-seat parliament.
Unless things shift as the remaining votes are tallied, another round of complicated political negotiations awaits.
Read the article by Jeffrey Heller in The Canberra Times and The West Australian.