Israel’s President Isaac Herzog has accepted the certified results of last week’s parliamentary election and begun consultations with party leaders over who should be asked to form the next government.
The move challenges Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to discredit the vote, after his coalition and its allies lost their majority in the 120-seat parliament. Arab-led parties made historic gains, but neither of the main political blocs secured the 61 seats needed to govern.
“The elections are over. Now is the time to face reality,” Mr Herzog said.
Israel election results leave coalition talks open
The October 27 election gave Mr Netanyahu’s coalition 53 seats, while the bloc led by opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot won 48. The outcome leaves open the possibility of an alliance between the two men, or a deal between Mr Eisenkot and the Arab-led Ra’am and Joint List parties.
Those two factions secured a combined record of 19 seats. Mr Herzog began meeting party leaders on Wednesday night, with further consultations due on Thursday before the two largest parties, Mr Eisenkot’s Yashar and Mr Netanyahu’s Likud, are heard last.
Three factions aligned with Mr Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist base recommended that he be given the opportunity to form a coalition. A fourth faction, led by a former ally who has since become a rival, backed Mr Eisenkot.
Mr Eisenkot’s position improved when Ra’am said it would recommend him, taking his expected support to 56 lawmakers. The Joint List has not announced its position, but could support him or abstain depending on what he asks of the party. Its 11 seats could take him beyond the threshold of 61.
Mr Netanyahu’s bloc may also fall short of 53 endorsements. Degel HaTorah, which holds four of United Torah Judaism’s seven seats, said it would recommend neither candidate after breaking with the prime minister over the failure to pass legislation exempting ultra-Orthodox Haredi men from military service.
Once the consultations conclude, Mr Herzog will choose the candidate he believes is best placed to assemble a coalition, almost certainly Mr Netanyahu or Mr Eisenkot. The nominee will have 28 days to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension. If both fail, Israel would hold another election early next year.
Election commission rejects fraud claims
Mr Netanyahu and his supporters have repeatedly alleged, without substantiating their claims, that Arab-led parties “stole” the election with possible foreign assistance.
Israel’s elections commission said it had investigated claims of fraud made by all parties and found “no evidence of irregularities that compromised the integrity of the election or affected its results”. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara also rejected a request to question elected officials without supporting evidence.
Mr Herzog urged the rival camps to compromise rather than force another election, saying that “not every commitment and promise can be fulfilled”. He called for “originality and creativity, courage and goodwill” to help the country emerge from the political deadlock.
He backed an investigation into suspected interference but warned against smearing Palestinian-Israeli voters, saying he had “great respect” for the country’s Palestinian minority, which makes up about 20 per cent of the population.
“I condemn the coarseness and racist expressions that we have heard recently,” he said.
