Israeli election in the balance. With 99,5% of the ballots examined, the right and centre-left blocks are virtually tied. According to the results released this morning by the Electoral Commission, the right-wing coalition led by the Likud-Israel Beiteinu joint list and the centre-left win 60 seats each. The outgoing premier's list won 31 seats, eleven fewer than the two separate parties had in the previous legislature. Surprisingly, the new centrist party Yesh Atid, led by Yair Lapid, came second, with 19 seats, while Labor came in third place, with 15 seats.
As leader of the list that won the most seats, the outgoing premier Benjamin Netanyahu, despite the recorded retreat, will probably get the job of forming the next government from President Shimon Peres.
Shortly after midnight, Netanyahu announced his victory: “I am proud to be your prime minister – he said from Tel Aviv -. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to lead the State of Israel for the third time. It is a great privilege and a great responsibility”. Netanyahu had also announced his intention to form "a government coalition that is as broad as possible", and that the first priority of the next government will remain that of "preventing Iran from acquiring atomic weapons".
Among Netanyahu's other "natural" allies, the British Home, the national-religious formation of the entrepreneur-settler Naftali Bennett, won eleven seats, as did the ultra-Orthodox Sephardic Shass party, while the Ashkenazi orthodox Unified Judaism of the Torah won eleven got seven.
The new centrist movement of former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, Hatnouha, who campaigned for the relaunch of the peace process with the Palestinians, won six seats instead. The left-wing Meretz party also won six, the Arab parties 12 and Kadima two.
