Benjamin Netanyahu to wait a week to see if he is re-elected as Israel’s prime minister

Benjamin Netanyahu will be forced to wait a week to see if he has won a record fifth term as Israeli prime minister after brushing off corruption claims.

Israel will have to wait at least a week for its complete election results as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sits agonisingly close to getting the numbers to form a majority government.

The office of Reuven Rivlin, Israel’s President, said the country’s Central Elections Committee will deliver the full official results next Tuesday, according to the Times of Israel.

Mr Netanyahu has already claimed victory in the country’s general election, telling a crowd of screaming supporters in Tel Aviv it was “time to heal the rifts”.

More than 90 per cent of the votes had been counted by early Wednesday Australian time, leaving Mr Netanyahu just one seat shy of securing a much-needed majority to break the political deadlock that Israel has been struggling with for the past year.

Mr Netanyahu, 70, declared the result the “biggest win of my life”, telling his supporters “we turned lemons into lemonade”.

Israel’s longest serving prime minister, Mr Netanyahu was vying for a record fifth term as the leader of the country.

He has already served in office from 1996 to 1999, returning as PM in 2009.

Read the article by Natalie Wolfe, News Corp Australia Network in the Townsville Bulletin and the Geelong Advertiser.