No clear winner in Israeli elections with almost 90 percent of votes counted | Israel Elections 2026 News

No clear winner emerged from Israeli elections, with nearly 90 percent of ballots counted and the two main political blocs failing to secure the 61 seats needed to form a government.

Israel’s Central Election Commission said on Wednesday it had counted more than five million votes as of 9:00 p.m. local time (19:00 GMT). Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc is on course to win 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, while the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot is expected to get 48 seats.

Projections for Tuesday’s vote also showed that Arab parties – the Joint List and Ra’am – could hold a record total of 19 seats.

The final results of the elections could be known as early as Thursday evening, but no clear winner should emerge.

More than 500,000 special double-envelope ballots remain to be counted, which could change the distribution of seats. These include votes cast by soldiers, diplomats and others voting outside of their registered polling stations.

The vote – the first since the October 7, 2023 attacks and the Gaza genocide – was widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu’s premiership. The 77-year-old seems far from defeated, even if he lacks a clear majority.

Netanyahu will remain caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed. President Isaac Herzog will begin consulting with party leaders next week on the formation of a new administration, once official election results are released.

Herzog urged all parties to avoid another vote that would block the formation of a government. But coalition building is the norm in Israel, and no party has ever won an absolute majority in the country’s history.

Before the vote, Eisenkot ruled out forming a minority government with Arab-led parties. Netanyahu also rejected such a prospect.

With Netanyahu’s bloc expected to be the largest, analysts predict he will form a unity government that could include Eisenkot. However, such an outcome is far from certain.

Eisenkot said in an article on

“It is the will of the people who have expressed no confidence in the government of October 7 and in the crooks, and in the bloc of crooks in general. A bloc which is at its lowest level for two decades.”

Facing record turnout among Arab voters, Netanyahu’s Likud party accused Arab parties of stealing the election.

“The elections in the State of Israel were stolen by Arab parties that support terrorism and the elimination of the Jewish state through serious criminal offenses of corruption, threats, violence, counterfeiting and the use of banned software to mobilize voters,” the party said in a statement.

“The Likud party is transferring hundreds of testimonies and evidence regarding the theft of elections in many Arab polling stations to the police, the Shin Bet and the Central Election Commission,” he said.

The Joint List, Israel’s Arab-majority political alliance, said in a statement released Wednesday evening by Turkey’s Anadolu news agency that preliminary figures showed Arab voter turnout played a decisive role in preventing Netanyahu and his coalition from securing a parliamentary majority, while warning that final results had not yet been announced.

Voters responded to incitement and intimidation at the polls, he said, rejecting a “government of butchers” and its policies of house demolitions, racism and war crimes.

The Joint List said its electoral support reflected its demands for political unity and a force capable of defending the rights of Arab citizens without concessions.

He pledged to work to overthrow Netanyahu’s government and prevent its return, saying he was ready to cooperate to form an alternative government.

Joint List leader Yousef Jabareen said the alliance could support an anti-Netanyahu government from outside, but would not join it.