Likud leads early Israeli election count with 16.8% of ballots tallied

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party led the early parliamentary election count on Wednesday, with 24.1% of the vote, Anadolu Agency reported, citing Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

The Central Elections Committee had counted 956,458 votes, or 16.8% of ballots cast, the newspaper said. Former Army Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party was in second place with 16.1%.

The Together alliance, led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, had 8.8%. The Joint List received 5.9%, while the United Arab List (Ra’am) had 2.75%.

The partial tally did not establish the final distribution of seats in the 120-member Knesset.

An updated Channel 12 exit poll projected 52 seats for Netanyahu’s bloc, 49 for the opposition led by Eisenkot and 19 for Arab parties.

Updated exit polls from Israel’s public broadcaster and Channel 13 put the two main blocs level at 51 seats each, with Arab parties projected to win 18 seats.

None of the projections gave either bloc the 61 seats needed for a parliamentary majority. Exit polls survey voters and are separate from the ongoing ballot count.

Turnout reached 77.7%, the highest since 1999, according to the Central Elections Committee.