The Jerusalem Post is reporting right now that with the polls closed and exit poll results dribbling out, Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition partners are on course to form a government:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succeeded in winning 60 seats for his bloc of right-wing and religious parties, one less than he needed for a majority in the Knesset in Monday’s election, according to exit polls on the three television networks.
Exit polls published by Channel 12 predict that the Likud Party stands at 37 seats while Blue and White is on 33 seats. The Joint List, according to the poll, has 14 seats. A total of 9 seats are predicted for Shas and 7 for UTJ, while another 7 seats are for Yamina. Otzma Yehudit will not pass the threshold. Labor-Gesher-Meretz are predicted to receive 7 seats, meaning the right-wing bloc stands at 60 seats altogether whilst the center-left stands at 40, with Yisrael Beytenu on 6.
Despite today’s election being the third in one year (and we think our system takes too long), turnout appears to be up:
The voter turnout at 8p.m. was 65.6%, compared to 63.7% in the September election and the highest turnout rate at this hour since the 1999 election. Final turnout was expected to pass 70%, up from 68.46% in April and 69.83% in September. There were more than 200,000 voters who cast ballots on Monday who had not voted in September.
This is good news. Now back to Super Tuesday.
