Iran Press/Middle East: The results released by Israel’s central election commission showed Likud capturing a total of 36 seats in the 120-seat Parliament, compared to 35 seats for its main rival, the centrist Blue and White party, the Associated Press reported.
The heads of each of these parties must now present themselves to Israel’s President, Reuven Rivlin, to recommend their choice of prime minister. It is widely expected that the right-wing bloc – which includes Likud, Shas, UTJ, Yisrael Beiteinu, URWP and Kulanu – will recommend Netanyahu as prime minister.
The results released late Thursday did not significantly alter the initial ones from Tuesday’s election.
One of the major factors hastening Netanyahu’s shaky victory was the low voter turnout, about 50 percent, among Israel’s Arab residents.
This disappointing performance was also caused by a foul play by the Likud party which tried to scare Palestinian citizens away from polling stations.
The party sent monitors equipped with body cameras to a number of polling stations with Arab constituents on Tuesday, when people in the Israeli-occupied territories went to the polls.
Videos posted online appeared to show Likud operatives being confronted by other observers and the police over small cameras they had hidden in their clothes.
The Arab-majority party Hadash-Ta’al submitted a complaint to the Central Elections Committee, which determined that filming at polling stations violated Israeli election laws. 101/201
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