ISRAEL-ELECTION/PARTY REAX UPDATE Israel's rivals Likud and Zionist Union, possible centrist kingmakers Lapid and Kahlon parties react to exit polls

Record ID: 399353

  • Title: ISRAEL-ELECTION/PARTY REAX UPDATE Israel's rivals Likud and Zionist Union, possible centrist kingmakers Lapid and Kahlon parties react to exit polls
  • Date: 17th March 2015
  • Summary: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (MARCH 17, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LIKUD MEMBERS CELEBRATING AT HEADQUARTERS VARIOUS OF SUPPORTERS CHEERING MEMBERS OF LIKUD MEMBER AND CURRENT TRANSPORTATION MINISTER YISRAEL KATZ HUGGING SUPPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIKUD MEMBER AND CURRENT TRANSPORTATION MINISTER, YISRAEL KATZ, SAYING: "I'm very happy send my congratulations from here to Prime Min
  • Embargoed: 1st April 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5PQ8LHX33L3ME913NONX74M3
  • Story Text: PLEASE NOTE THIS EDIT CONTAINS CONVERTED 4:3 MATERIAL
    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed victory in Israel's election on Tuesday (March 17) and broached talks on a new right-wing government after exit polls showed his Likud party closing a gap with the centre-left Zionist Union.
    A spokesman for the Zionist Union called Netanyahu's announcement premature and voiced confidence the alliance's leader, Isaac Herzog, who had appeared on the verge of unseating the three-term prime minister, could form a governing coalition.
    The exit polls suggested that Netanyahu's pitch for ultranationalist votes in the final days of the hard-fought campaign - including disavowal of a previous commitment to creation of a Palestinian state - had worked.
    "I'm very happy, send my congratulations from here to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that gave a big fight against all the world that want to throw him out of his job and people of Israel this today a big thing they support the Likud party," said Minister of Transportation Yisrael Katz at the Likud party headquarters celebrations.
    A fourth Netanyahu term would probably prolong his prickly relationship with Israel's main ally, the United States, at least as long as Barack Obama is in the White House.
    Netanyahu has focused on the threat from Iran's nuclear programme and militant Islam. But many Israelis had said they were tiring of the message, and the centre-left had campaigned on social and economic issues, surging in polls as election day neared.
    Two television exit polls, for Channel 10 and Channel 1, said Likud and Zionist Union had each secured 27 seats in the 120-member Knesset. Channel 2 gave Netanyahu a narrow edge, with 28 to 27 for his challenger after polling stations closed.
    Opinion polls in the run-up to the ballot had shown Zionist Union with a three to four-seat advantage over Likud, suggesting the Israeli public had warmed to Herzog, a far more under-stated politician than Netanyahu and lampooned over his reedy voice.
    "I think it's very clear that most of the Israeli people do not want Benjamin Netanyahu to be their prime minister anymore and when he's done during the last few days it makes it almost morally impossible for him to keep on being prime minister, I think Herzog has every possibility of putting together a very good center-left coalition and the government needs to be formed now for the benefit of Israeli citizens," said Zionist Union member Merav Michaeli.
    Final results are not expected until early on Wednesday morning.
    The exit polls gave right-wing and religious parties - Netanyahu's traditional partners - about 54 seats, and left-leaning factions, 43 - figures still short of a governing majority.
    Turnout was around 72 percent, higher than the last election in 2013.
    No party has ever won an outright majority in Israel's 67-year history, and it may be weeks before the country has a new government. Netanyahu will remain prime minister until a new administration is sworn in.
    But Zionist Union could find a lifeline from a new centrist party, Kulanu, and from Arab parties that united for the first time in a joint list of parliamentary candidates and came in third in the exit polls.
    Yair Lapid, the leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, could also ally with either side. According to the exit polls, he will receive 11-12 seats. But he does not sit comfortably with religious parties, making him less flexible in coalition talks.
    "I think that we win we will see what will happened in the future and I hope that we will be in the coalition," said Yesh Atid party member Yair Lapid.
    Naftali Bennett, leader of the ultranationalist Jewish Home party, said he had spoken with Netanyahu within minutes of the exit polls and agreed to open "accelerated" coalition talks with him.
    "The nationalist camp won," Bennett, who advocates annexing parts of the occupied West Bank, told supporters.
    After the final results are in, and following consultations with political parties, it will be up to President Reuven Rivlin to name the candidate he deems best placed to try to form a coalition. The nominee will have up to 42 days to do so.
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