DRAMATIC UPDATE: PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU LOSES BLOC MAJORITY FOR FIRST TIME IN TEN YEARS.
Preliminary Exit polls – Israel’s Parliamentary Elections:
Domestic Channel 12: (Right-wing-Religious Bloc 57 ||| Center-left Bloc 55 ||| Yisrael Beitenu 8 )
Blue and White 34, Likud 33, Arab list 11, Shas 8, United Judaism 8, Right 8, Israel Betinu 8, Labor 5, Democratic camp 5.
Domestic Channel 13: (Right-wing-Religious Bloc 54 ||| Center-left Bloc 58 ||| Yisrael Beitenu 8 )
Blue and White 33, Likud 31, Arab list 13, Shas 9, Israel Betinu 8, United Judaism 8, Right 6, Labor 6, Democratic camp 6.
Domestic State TV KAN: (Right-wing-Religious Bloc 56 ||| Center-left Bloc 54 ||| Yisrael Beitenu 10 )
Blue and White 32, Likud 32, Arab list 12, Israel Betinu 10, Shas 9, United Judaism 8, Right 7, Labor 5, Democratic camp 5.
Edited on 17.9.19 at 22:57
Voting polls for Israel’s national elections will close at ten p.m. tonight, after which official exit polls will immediately be made public. Millions of Israelis flocked to voting stations electoral stations, for the an unprecedented second time in just over five months, to cast their preferred ballots for Jerusalem’s the country’s future leadership.
According to the last projection surveys published on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz were running neck-and-neck. It would nevertheless appear that Netanyahu’s rightwing religious bloc managed to maintain 57 mandate lead over Gantz’s center-left bloc with 54.
An expected win of 9 mandates by former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party would grant it the power to decide who will be tasked to form next government of Israel – which is precisely the same outcome as the country’s last elections on April 9th. Liberman expressed confidence after being asked if he was concerned over a less-favorable turnout that projected, as he cast his own vote this morning near his West Bank home in the settlement of Nokdim. When asked “Are there worries?” by a reporter, the Yisrael Beiteinu chief replied no, “we have a feeling that everything will be alright.”
As the country’s longest serving leader, Prime Minister Netanyahu is now running for an historic fifth term, unprecedented in Israeli history. During his appearance at a Jerusalem polling station earlier today, He said he “could confirm” that the election would be “very close,” before issuing an appeal for “all Israelis to come and vote.” He stopped short of making any statements against his main rival, Benny Gantz.
At the central Israeli city of Rosh Ha’ayin, the Blue and White Chairman also refrained from lambasting his rivals, and merely wished success and good luck to all.