Israel’s final election results give Netanyahu’s Likud additional seat, deadlock remains

Israel’s election committee has published final results from last week’s vote which gives PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud an additional seat. However, it does not alter the state of deadlock.

Final results from the September 17 election gave the rightwing Likud 32 seats compared to Benny Gantz’s more moderate Blue and White’s 33 in the 120-seat parliament, AFP reports. The two parties are trying to negotiate a unity coalition, and President Reuven Rivlin has one week to name someone to form a government.

Likud’s additional seat came at the expense of one of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties, United Torah Judaism, which now has seven. Israel’s Arab parties, running together under the Joint List alliance, finished as the third-largest force in parliament with 13 seats.

Netanyahu has received the endorsement of 55 parliament members to be prime minister, while Gantz has received 54. Neither has a clear path to a majority coalition.