Likud wins, but centrist newcomer shock of Israeli election

APIsrael's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman greet their supporters in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.

One of the most anemic election campaigns in Israeli history threw up a surprise on Wednesday when Premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-Beteinu party did worse than expected, and a new centrist party came from nowhere to emerge as the second-largest faction in parliament.

With 90 per cent of the votes counted by 0200 GMT on Wednesday morning, Mr. Netanyahu’s alliance with former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman was winning only 31 seats, fewer less than predicted in most pre-election polls.

The results, with centre-left parties doing better than expected, appeared to defy predictions of a dramatic swing to the right.

The results also showed the balance of power equally divided between the right wing-religious block and the centrist-left-wing one, neither with an automatic majority coalition.

It was also a harsh blow to the Likud-Beteinu alliance which went into the elections with 42 seats in the 120-seat parliament.

Mr. Netanyahu told party activists at Likud campaign headquarters that he wanted to create as large a coalition as possible.

“I believe that the result of the elections creates an opportunity for the changes that Israel’s citizens wish for themselves,” he said.

“The first challenge is and remains preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon,” he said, listing also economic responsibility, peace talks, a fairer division of the obligations borne by Israeli citizens and lowering the cost of living.

The biggest electoral surprise was the centrist Yesh Atid party led by former television anchorman Yair Lapid, which took about 19 seats to become the second-largest party in parliament.

Mr. Lapid told cheering supporters that his priorities were the economic crisis hurting the middle class, Israel’s international isolation and the stalled peace process.

He said a broad coalition should include the “moderate” forces from both the left and right.

The centre-left Labour Party was polling third with 15 seats, and the ultra-nationalist Jewish Home faction won only 11 seats.

The result was a major disappointment for the leaders of both parties. The Labour Party had expected to be the second-largest party. Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett said he had at least succeeded in placing his party at the “centre of the political map.” Former foreign minister Tzipi Livni also failed to convince voters with her centrist The Movement winning only seven mandates.

The Kadima party, which had won the most seats in the previous election in 2009 but had been racked by defections including Livni, suffered an electoral meltdown and was just scraping past the 2 per cent threshold needed to enter parliament with two seats.

The higher-than-expected voter turnout of 67 per cent was especially high in cities where centrist and left-wing parties were popular, compared to locations thought to be strongholds of the Likud and other right-wing parties, Shortly before the polls closed, Netanyahu sent an SOS to his supporters via his Facebook page, telling them that “our government is in danger” and urging those who had not yet voted to do so.