Israel Certifies Election Results as Herzog Starts Coalition Talks
Photo: Marc Israel Sellem via The Jerusalem Post
Israel has certified the results of its 27 October parliamentary election after finding no evidence of fraud, and President Isaac Herzog has begun talks with party leaders on who should get the first chance to form a government. The decision is a blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had tried to cast doubt on the vote, and it sets up two days of consultations that will decide whether he stays in office or his rival Gadi Eisenkot gets the mandate.
The handover took place at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, who chairs the Central Elections Committee, handed the official results to Herzog and warned that casting doubt on the outcome poses a real danger to Israel's democracy, Al Jazeera reported.
The committee said it had reviewed 9,069 polling stations and found no irregularities that changed the result or damaged the integrity of the vote. Its acting director, Dean Livne, said every complaint had been examined one by one and the results truly reflected what voters chose.
That did not settle the argument inside the committee itself. In its five member presidium, representatives of Yesh Atid and Blue and White voted to ratify the results, while Likud and Shas abstained, and Sohlberg cast the deciding vote. Netanyahu and his allies have claimed, without evidence, that Arab-led parties stole the election, possibly with foreign help.
The claims have grown sharper in recent days. The Shin Bet security agency told the committee that intelligence pointed to foreign funding and influence operations involving thousands of people, The Jerusalem Post reported, while law enforcement sources told Haaretz they knew of no operation on that scale. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded a freeze on certification and called for Arab party leaders to be arrested and questioned, and Likud legislator Amit Halevi resigned from the committee, alleging seats had been bought with bribe money.
Herzog, speaking after he received the results, urged patience on the investigation and warned against smearing Arab citizens of Israel. "Beware of generalizations. I hold Arab society in Israel in great respect," he said, adding that he condemned racist expressions heard in recent days. He also told party leaders plainly that they would not be able to keep every promise they made during the campaign.
The numbers explain why the next two days matter so much. Netanyahu's bloc won 53 seats in the 120 seat Knesset, Eisenkot's bloc won 48, and the Arab-led parties Ra'am and the Joint List won a record 19 between them. No bloc reaches the 61 seats needed to govern on its own, so the Arab parties now hold the balance of power, and the deadlock raises the chance of a unity government, an alliance between Eisenkot and the Arab parties, or another election early next year.
Herzog broke with custom in how he will run the consultations, meeting the smaller parties first, starting with Religious Zionism, followed by Shas and Yisrael Beytenu, with the remaining factions due on Thursday, ending with Eisenkot's Yashar and finally Likud, The Times of Israel reported. Under the law he has until 11 November to hand out the mandate. The opposition leaders have already agreed to recommend Eisenkot, and with the Arab parties' 19 recommendations he could reach 67, more than Netanyahu's 53, which is why this week's meetings will be watched so closely, not just in Israel but across a region already on edge, from the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz to the siege of Taiz in Yemen and the foiled plot against a Syrian oil refinery.
What this means in plain terms is simple. The vote itself is now official and cannot be undone by claims on social media, but the fight for power has only moved into a new room, Herzog's office, where every party leader will now make their case in turn.
Sources
Al Jazeera: Israel vote results confirmed as election commission rejects fraud claims
Herzog will name his choice for prime minister after the consultations end on Thursday.
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