No clear winner in Israel election with nearly 90 percent of votes counted

Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc leads but is falling short of the votes needed to form a government.By Al Jazeera and AnadoluPublished On 29 Oct 202629 Oct 2026No clear winner has emerged from Israel’s election, with nearly 90 percent of ballots counted and both major political blocs falling short of the 61 seats needed to form a government.The Israeli Central Elections Committee said on Wednesday that it had counted more than five million votes as of 9pm local time (19:00 GMT). Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc is on course to win 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, while the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot is expected to secure 48 seats.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Why Arab parties may not be the ‘kingmakers’ in this Israeli electionlist 2 of 3Balad leader blasts ‘racist’ exclusion of Arab parties in Israellist 3 of 3What are the implications of Israel’s elections?end of listProjections from Tuesday’s voting also showed that the Arab parties – the Joint List and Ra’am – could hold a record combined 19 seats.Final election results could come as early as Thursday evening, though no clear winner is expected to emerge.More than 500,000 special double-...