JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main election challenger, centrist party chief Benny Gantz, said on Wednesday it appeared from exit polls that the Israeli leader was defeated but that only official results would tell.
Gantz, a former general, stopped short of an outright claim of victory. But beaming confidence, he told a rally of his Blue and White Party that it appeared “we fulfilled our mission”, and he pledged to work towards formation of a national unity government.
Netanyahu, he said, apparently “did not succeed in his mission” to win a fifth term in a do-over election that followed an inconclusive national ballot in April. “We will await the actual results,” Gantz said.
The prime minister, head of the right-wing Likud and Israel’s longest-serving leader, was due to deliver a “brief but important” address at its election headquarters at around 3 a.m. (0000 GMT).
Revised surveys, several hours after polls closed, by Israeli TV stations gave Likud 30 to 33 of parliament’s 120 seats, a slight drop from earlier forecasts, versus 32 to 34 for Blue and White.
Neither had enough support, at first glance, for a governing coalition of 61 legislators, and Netanyahu’s ally-turned-rival, former Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, emerged as a likely kingmaker as head of the far-right Yisrael Beitenu party.
“Netanyahu has lost, but Gantz hasn’t won,” said Udi Segal, a prominent Israeli television news anchor.
The revised polls showed that without Yisrael Beitenu’s projected eight to nine seats, stalemate could ensue: Likud would have the support of only up to 55 legislators, down from 57 in the earlier exit polls, for a right-wing coalition. Blue and White could enlist the backing of no more than 59 for a centre-left government.
“We have only one option – a national, liberal, broad government comprising Israel Beitenu, Likud and Blue and White,” said Lieberman, whose projected tally was double the result in April.
Coalition-building could be complicated: Lieberman has said he would not join an alliance that included ultra-Orthodox parties – Netanyahu’s traditional partners.
Gantz has ruled out participating in an administration with Netanyahu, if the Israeli leader is indicted on looming corruption charges.
