Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin will meet with representatives of each of the parties elected to serve in the 20th Knesset.
Through the meetings, which will begin on Sunday, Rivlin will determine which party head will be tasked with forming a new government. Rivlin cannot task anyone with forming a government until after he is presented with the results on March 25.
It is expected that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be asked to form the new government.
According to the final tally Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party garnered 30 Knesset seats and the left-centre coalition Zionist Union received 24 seats.
The Central Election Committee on Thursday released the final vote count, after the tabulating of an additional 200,000 absentee ballots from diplomats serving abroad, soldiers, prisoners, and hospitalized and seriously ill voters. Some 4,253,336 citizens voted, or 72.3 per cent of the electorate. It is the highest voter turnout since 1999, according to the Israel Democracy Institute.
The number of votes required to pass the minimum threshold of 3.25 per cent was 136,808.
The Joint Arab List placed third with 13 seats, down from a projected 14, but still remaining the third largest party in the Knesset. Yesh Atid received 11 seats; Kulanu had 10, the Jewish Home received eight, Shas , Yisrael Beytenu and United Torah Judaism each received six, and Meretz five.
Meretz Party head Zahava Gal-on on Thursday said she would remain the head of the left-wing party after it gained a fifth seat. On Wednesday Gal-on had announced she would relinquish her seat and quit politics if the party dropped two seats from the last election to four seats.
