ISRAEL / JERUSALEM: Benjamin Netanyahu tells supporters he'll stay on as Likud party leader despite poorer than expected election results

Record ID: 398287

  • Title: ISRAEL / JERUSALEM: Benjamin Netanyahu tells supporters he'll stay on as Likud party leader despite poorer than expected election results
  • Date: 29th March 2006
  • Summary: (BN16) NEVE ILAN, ISRAEL (MARCH 28, 2006) (REUTERS) KADIMA MEMBER AND ISRAELI DEFENCE MINISTER SHAUL MOFAZ DESCENDING STEPS AT KADIMA ELECTION HEADQUARTERS ON ELECTION NIGHT (SOUNDBITE) (English) KADIMA MEMBER AND ISRAELI DEFENCE MINISTER SHAUL MOFAZ, SPEAKING TO MEDIA, SAYING: "I am very satisfied with the results so far. We have to wait and see the real results of the e
  • Embargoed: 13th April 2006 13:00
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  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7VA4EBKJ75V37ZNS7B7H9QF2Z
  • Story Text: Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday (March 28) that he was staying on as leader of the right-wing Likud party, despite its poorer than expected showing in a general election.
    "Although we don't have the real results yet, we have no doubt that the Likud is taking a serious blow. It's the second serious blow. Only 100 days ago, or even less than 100 days, we lost the leadership of the movement, after the former movement leader left, and left us with a broken and crashed movement," Netanyahu told supporters.
    Yisrael Beitenu Party candidate Avigdor Lieberman, considered by many political experts as an ultranationalist, said he was pleased with the election results.
    Though still well behind the centrist Kadima and centre-left Labour parties, Yisrael Beitenu was tipped by the exit polls to come in third with 13-14 seats in the 120-member parliament, ahead of right-wing Likud's projected 12 seats.
    "We are very satisfied with the result for us. I think it's a really important achievement. Today we are the biggest part of the national type of the right wing, and I hope that in the next elections, we will be the biggest partner," Lieberman said.
    The pensioners party, Gil, celebrated Tuesday night. The party, led by Rafael Eitan, a retired Israeli spymaster, led the party to unexpected gains, according to exit polls.
    A hebrew acronym for "Pensioners for You", Gil was tipped by exit polls to take 8-10 of parliament's 120 seats, the first such foothold for a party championing the rights of the elderly.
    Israel's elderly are a growing electorate, with some 750,000 pensioners out of a total population of 6.8 million.
    Israel's ultra-orthodox religious Shas party also celebrated. Though the Labour party is a likely candidate to join Kadima in a coalition government, some political experts say Kadima could turn to Shas as well to accrue more than 50 percent of the seats in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament).
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