Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s alliance leads Gadi Eisenkot’s in partial projections, but neither reaches the 61-seat majority. Official results are due on November 4, while coalition negotiations could take considerably longer.
Neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc nor Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition alliance reaches a governing majority in initial projections from Israel’s 27 October parliamentary election, described in Al Jazeera’s 28 October account. Later partial projections on 28 October still left both blocs short, while Arab parties were projected to take 19 seats.
A majority requires support from at least 61 members of the 120-seat Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Parties receive seats in proportion to their national vote share, provided they clear the 3.25 percent threshold for entering parliament.
Israel previously held five parliamentary elections between April 2019 and November 2022. The coalition led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid after the 2021 election dissolved in June 2022. Netanyahu’s bloc then won a majority in the 1 November 2022 election, and his government was sworn in on 29 December 2022.
Deadline’s 28 October account gave provisional seat figures with around 85 percent of votes counted at 5:15pm local time. An earlier Al Jazeera account on 28 October had put the count at nearly 80 percent. Neither set of projections is a certified allocation of seats.
| Bloc or group | Nearly 80% counted: Al Jazeera |
|---|
Projections for the October 27 parliamentary election put Gadi Eisenkot’s allies on 52 seats and Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc on 50, leaving both needing more support to reach the 61-seat majority.
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| Netanyahu’s bloc | 54 | 53 |
| Eisenkot’s bloc | 49 | 48 |
| Arab parties | 17 | 19 |
Deadline’s combined projection of 67 seats for parties opposed to Netanyahu includes the Arab parties, not just Eisenkot’s bloc. It does not represent an agreed governing coalition. Deadline said Eisenkot had previously rejected joining forces with the Arab parties because of a “lack of shared values”.
| Party | Projected seats |
|---|---|
| Likud | 26 |
| Yashar | 21 |
Likud remained the largest single party in those projections. Israel’s Central Elections Committee put turnout at 77.7 percent, the highest since 1999.
Deadline said about 600,000 absentee ballots—around 10 percent of votes, cast mainly by military personnel—still awaited counting. Counting those ballots was scheduled to begin at midnight local time at the start of 29 October.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, remains caretaker prime minister during coalition negotiations. His bloc includes Likud, the ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism, and the far-right parties Religious Zionism, led by Bezalel Smotrich, and Otzma Yehudit, led by Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Eisenkot, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces from 2015 to 2019, leads Yashar. His opposition bloc also includes Together, the list associated with former prime ministers Bennett and Lapid, Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu and Yair Golan’s Democrats.
The Arab-led parties Ra’am and the Joint List could provide enough additional support for either main bloc to reach a majority. Political barriers remain: Netanyahu has described a coalition with Arab parties as “shameful”, and leading figures in the Jewish-led opposition have also ruled out governing with them.
After the results are certified, Israel’s president gives a Knesset member the mandate—the formal opportunity to try to form a government. The choice goes to the lawmaker considered most likely to assemble a majority, rather than automatically to the leader of the largest party.
That lawmaker has 28 days to form a government, with a possible extension of up to 14 days. If the attempt fails, another lawmaker can be given a chance. If nobody can form a government, Israel may have to hold another election.
Al Jazeera said the final tally was expected by 30 October, with official results scheduled for publication on 4 November. Publication is not a deadline for a coalition agreement; negotiations to form the next government could take considerably longer.
With 55% of votes counted on 28 October, the election committee’s partial figures put Gadi Eisenkot’s alliance at 49 seats. Both blocs remain below the 61-seat majority, leaving the final count and coalition talks ahead.
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