EXIT POLLS: KADIMA 29; LABOR 22; LIKUD 11
Just remember to take this with a grain of salt because the polls lie here....Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima Party was the big winner in the 2006 election on Tuesday, taking 29 seats in the 17th Knesset, [Big winner? They were supposed to take 43 seats a few weeks ago. CiJ] according to an exit poll conducted by the Midgam company of 60 polling stations for Israel Television's Channel 1.
Olmert's likely coalition partners in Labor and Meretz won 22 and 5 seats, respectively, guaranteeing a majority for his plan to withdraw from most of the West Bank unilaterally within four years, as he promised during the election campaign. [Maybe my math is a bit off, but 29 + 22 + 5 = 56 in my book and 56 is less than 61. The real question is whether any of Yisrael Beiteinu, Shas or UTJ will go in with them. CiJ]
The right-wing bloc of Likud, National Union-NRP, Yisrael Beiteinu, Shas and United Torah Judaism won 50 seats (Likud 11; National Union-NRP 8; Yisrael Beiteinu 14; Shas 11; United Torah Judaism 6), not enough to keep Olmert from forming a government. [And the rest? CiJ]
The accuracy of the TV exit poll has been marred in the past, most memorably in 1996 when it incorrectly showed Shimon Peres to have narrowly defeated Binyamin Netanyahu for the prime ministership. Final results are expected to flow in the course of the night.
Likud head Netanyahu is expected to visit the party's gathering at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds after midnight to announce his political future after the party won its lowest number of seats since its predecessor, Herut, won only 15 seats in 1955.
Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party won 14 seats, making it the third largest party in the next Knesset. Lieberman has expressed an interest in joining any coalition formed despite his opposition to Olmert's convergence plan.
The surprise of the election was the Gil pensioners' party, led by 79-year-old former senior Mossad agent Rafi Eitan, which won 8 seats. Kadima officials expressed an interest in including in the coalition the party whose main demand is benefits for Israel's senior citizens. The party's MKs will have freedom to vote their conscience on diplomatic issues, according to the party platform.
None of the other small parties running, including the Green Leaf Party, Uzi Dayan's Tafnit, the far-right Herut and Baruch Marzel's Jewish National Front, apparently passed the voter threshold.
Final results are expected by 6:00 a.m. The official results will be published on April 5th. President Moshe Katsav already said he would invite the parties to begin consultations on forming a new government as early as Sunday. Whoever Katsav asks to form a coalition will have 28 days to present a coalition of at least 61 MKs, with another 14 days' extension possible at the president's discretion.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:16 PM
2 Comments:
7 seats for rafi eitan and Gil(Pensioners party). Netanyahu's economic reforms in his last term have clearly hit hard and people want their pensions to return to the pre-netanyahu days.
The only way to do that is to re-raise taxes, and a lot of people won't be happy with that.
During the election campaign Olmert claimed he would not undo Netanyahu's economic reform. In fact, survey after survey showed that despite the Likud's loss, Netanyahu remains the most popular choice for Finance Minister (which is obviously unlikely now).
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