Both Netanyahu and Gantz refuse to concede Israeli election
by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – The two major parties in Israel’s Knesset are jockeying to form a ruling coalition after election results nearly mirrored April’s stalemate.
With 96.5% of the votes counted as of Thursday morning, according to the Central Elections Committee, neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party nor rival Benny Gantz’s quasi-liberal Blue and White party gained the 61 seats necessary for an outright parliamentary majority.
“Blue and White is the largest party,” Gantz said Thursday, balking at earlier calls from Netanyahu, whose party gained 2 fewer seats than his, to form a broad unity government with the longtime premier as its head. “I will build a broad and liberal government that will deliver the will of the people,” the former IDF chief telegraphed to his rival.
President Reuben Rivlin is slated to meet with the heads of the 9 parties that gained enough seats to be part of the Knesset on Sunday in order to receive their recommendations for Prime Minister, having promised an Israeli public that has now seen two elections in six months to “do everything…to prevent another general election.”
Remaining uncounted votes include a portion of the so-called “double envelopes” by which diplomats abroad, prison inmates, and hospital patients mail in their votes, which accounted for a little over 240,000 votes, or 6 to 7 parliamentary seats, in April’s election.