Exit polls give Netanyahu a slight advantage in Israeli election
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Exit polls in Israel suggest there will be no clear winner in the closely fought general election but Benjamin Netanyahu seems to have just a one seat lead, and some results show him even with Gantz.
With 96% of the votes have been counted, it appears that Likud is going to take the win with 37 seats compared to Blue and White’s 36. However as this dramatic election has shown, anything could change as the final percentage is counted.
Likud and Blue and White’s are neck to neck with each receiving 35 Knesset seats after a hotly contested election campaign.
However, the right-wing bloc has a clear advantage over the left, and seems to be likelier to form a coalition.
Earlier polls that showed Blue and White as leading by as many as four seats and party chairman Benny Gantz also held a victory rally.
Netanyahu claimed victory, because his Right-Center bloc won handily over Gantz’s Center-Left bloc in polls broadcast on Israeli TV station polls shown on Channel 13 and KAN, 66 to 54 and 64 to 56, respectively. In Channel 12’s poll, the blocs were even at 60 seats.
On the other hand, Gantz announced that he won the race, because in the Channel 12 poll, Blue and White received 37 seats and Likud 33. In the KAN poll, the victory margin was 37 to 36. The Channel 13 poll found the two parties even at 36.
No party has ever won a majority in Israel’s 120-seat parliament, the Knesset, and the country has always had coalition governments.
