Israel's final election results expected Thursday evening: Election official

Israel’s final parliamentary election results are expected Thursday evening, Israeli news website Ynet reported Wednesday, citing an election official.

Elad Naveh, director of the Central Elections Committee’s control center, said the counting of special double-envelope ballots would begin Wednesday evening and was expected to be completed Thursday evening, although the process could continue until Friday.

The committee said the estimated number of double-envelope ballots had been revised to between 430,000 and 480,000, according to Ynet.

Processing was still underway, and not all special envelopes had been processed, the committee noted, stressing that the estimate was preliminary and could change as the work progressed.

The special ballots were cast by voters outside their registered polling stations, including soldiers, diplomats, police officers, and displaced residents.

Under the system, voters place their ballot inside an envelope, which is then placed in a second envelope containing their identification details to prevent duplicate voting.

As of the latest count, 85.6% of votes had been counted.

Partial results showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc projected to win 53 seats, the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot 48 seats, and predominantly Arab parties 19 seats.

Neither major bloc was projected to reach the 61 seats needed for a parliamentary majority in the 120-member Knesset.

Naveh cautioned that the distribution of seats could change once the remaining ballots were counted.

More than 7.3 million Israelis were eligible to vote in Tuesday’s elections.

The elections were Israel’s first since the start of its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023.