Benjamin Netanyahu In Trouble to Secure Adequate Seats to Stay in Power
Prime Minister Requires Support from Aram Party Raam To Secure Majority Votes in The Election
The Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu might struggle to continue to stay in power in the Parliament, as incomplete results from the election conducted on Tuesday have been released. As around 90% of the votes have already been counted, Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc is expected to win with 59 seats in the parliament, although they are too short of the required threshold.
In surprise progress, an Arab political party is expected to get five of the seats that could hold the balance in power. The finalized result, along with several other factors, would determine the sequence of the relationship between Palestinians and Israel.
The Arab political party, Raam, is yet to declare whether they would be supporting Benjamin Netanyahu by the formation of an unnatural alliance, which would be formed to make a governing coalition or those of the bloc of political parties which are in opposition to him for remaining in power in the office.
The opponents to Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to win against him with 56 seats, which is according to the latest data from the Israel elections. Although the support from Raam is likely to give the majority of the votes in their favor, they are in a fragmented position, and it is unlikely that they would agree to work alongside each other. If both the blocs were unable to succeed, the country of Israel would face another election, which would come in its fifth since the year 2019.
Partial election results
The electoral system of Israel, which is a form of proportional representation, does not allow any single political party to win in the country’s election in an outright position. According to the Central Election Commission, the right-wing Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been able to secure votes around 24.2% so far; meanwhile, the centrist party of Yesh Atid, which is the main opposition leader to the prime minister, Yair Lapid, is on the second number with 13.9% votes in their favor.
It has been reported by the Israeli media that according to the election data collected up till now, it is expected that the results would end in Yesh Atid getting 17seats in the 120 seat Knesset, while Likud would be able to secure around 30 seats.
The political allies of Benjamin Netanyahu, which include the United Torah Judaism along with the ultra-Orthodox Jewish political party Shas, and it has been projected that they would be able to win seven and nine seats in the parliament, respectively. Meanwhile, the centrist Blue and White party of the Defence Minister would win eight seats, Yisrael Beitenu and center-left Labour party, and the nationalist Yamina would be winning seven seats each.
Although, it is expected that the Arab party Raam would likely be able to secure five seats in the Israel elections recently held.
After the initial projected results were provided by the main broadcasting firm of Israel in the evening on Tuesday, Benjamin Netanyahu was seen smiling on the stage at the headquarters of the Likud party. He stated that the latest elections held in Israel had been a great achievement, and he also said regarding the need for having a stable government that would be able to provide stability to the entire country.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition leader Lapid stated that he was very proud of the achievement by Yesh Atid and would provide all of his efforts to develop a stable government that would be able to lead the country of Israel in the upcoming years.
Tipping the balance
The finalized conclusive results for the election results would be made public at the end of this week. It appears that both Benjamin Netanyahu along his rival party requires support from Raam and Yamina to secure a majority number of votes.
Raam has split earlier in the year 2021 from the Joint List in part due to the fact that the leader of Raam, Mansour Abbas, stated that he was in favor of working alongside Benjamin Netanyahu to help address the requirements and need of the Arab citizens residing in Israel, which generally comprises of around 20% of the total population of the country.
In an interview conducted on Wednesday, Mansour Abbas said that he would not rule out the possibility to join any coalition.