Election in Israel: All votes counted - stalemate remains

Election in Israel All votes counted - stalemate remains as of: October 30, 2026 • 1:01 a.m

The counting of votes in Israel confirms that an extremely difficult government formation lies ahead. Meanwhile, a dispute has broken out over the election results - the Likud party is calling it a "stolen election."

According to the preliminary official final result, the previous coalition of right-wing, right-wing extremist and religious parties has 53 seats in parliament (2022: 64 seats). For a majority, 61 seats would be needed.

According to the information, the center party Jashar, newly founded by Eisenkot, emerged from the election as the second strongest force with 21 seats. Your opposition alliance has a total of 48 seats.

The result leads to a stalemate in parliament - and to difficult formation of a government. In order to achieve a majority of 61 seats, Eisenkot's opposition camp would mathematically have to rely on the support of the predominantly Arab parties. With a total of 19 mandates, they achieved a historically good result.

However, parts of the opposition alliance - especially the Jewish parties - could reject cooperation with Arab representatives. Eisenkot himself attaches strict conditions to the formation of a government. Potential partners must therefore sign a commitment to the Jewish and democratic character of the State of Israel, recognize a general duty of service and classify the Islamist Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Next week, President Yitzchak Herzog wants to give the order to form a government - either to Netanyahu or to Eisenkot.

The Arab parties probably performed better than ever before in Israel's election. more

Meanwhile, Eisenkot accused the current head of government, Netanyahu, of wanting to question the results of the parliamentary election. "It is already clear that Likud and Netanyahu have launched a coordinated, organized campaign aimed at delegitimizing the results of the election," Eisenkot said in a video message on Thursday.

Israel could be heading for new elections again after the parliamentary elections, says Middle East expert Woertz. more

The electoral commission asked the secret service to investigate the allegations on Wednesday evening. To date, no evidence has been provided publicly to support the allegations.

Domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet confirmed that the investigation was ongoing, but stressed that it was not about "blaming an entire community that voted democratically and legally."

With information from Tim Aßmann, ARD Capital Studio, currently Tel Aviv

This topic in the program: MDR aktuell - The news radio | News | Oct 29, 2026 | 8:10 p.m. Das Erste | daily news | Oct 30, 2026 | 01:46 am