Tel Aviv - The two largest parties to emerge from Israel's
inconclusive elections Tuesday were quick to put out coalition
feelers Wednesday, meeting with potential partners in a bid to gain
their support and put together a government as quickly as possible.
Both the centrist Kadima party of Tzipi Livni and the hardline
Likud of Benjamin Netanyahu claimed victory in the elections, after
all but final results - 99 per cent of the votes - released Wednesday
morning gave the former a one-seat lead over the latter, 28 to 27.
The remaining one per cent of the ballots, those of Israeli
soldiers, sailors and diplomats abroad, are due to be counted
Thursday and could further narrow the gap, and possibly even put the
final election result in a dead heat.
Under Israeli law, President Shimon Peres nominates a legislator
to form a new government after consulting with party leaders as to
who has the best chance of success.
The results Wednesday showed the right-wing block, headed by the
Likud, gaining a majority of mandates in the 120-seat Knesset,
boosting Netanyahu's chances, rather than those of Livni, of getting
the presidential nod to form a new government.
Livni however met early Wednesday afternoon with Avigdor
Lieberman, leader of the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party,
without whose 15 seats she - and Netanyahu - would have difficulty in
forming a coalition.
Lieberman, said already Tuesday night that he preferred a
nationalist, right-wing coalition.
Reports from the parley said Livni told Lieberman, whose party is
now the third largest in parliament, that the election results meant
'an opportunity for unity in which we can advance issues that are
also important to you.'
The two agreed to meet again.
Netanyahu, for his part, met with the ultra-Orthodox Shas party,
which won 11 mandates in the election and is also seen as a key
player in any attempt to form a government.
Shas already declared it would support Netanyahu as the next
premier.
A third potential coalition partner, the centre-left Labour Party,
appeared Wednesday to be heading for the opposition, after scoring
its lowest-ever election result - just 13 mandates.
Party leader Ehud Barak said the results necessitated a period out
of government for Labour in order for the party to rebuild itself.
With the election results inconclusive and both leading parties
claiming the right to form the next government, the most likely
outcome, according to political pundits Wednesday, was a national
unity government with Kadima and Likud as its spine.
Netanyahu, before the election, had said he would work to set up
such a government, and Livni, in her victory speech on Tuesday night,
called on the Likud leader to serve under her in a wall- to-wall
coalition.
Senior Kadima officials, who admitted Wednesday that their initial
victory celebrations came 'too early', repeated the call, adding that
the government should have a a rotating premiership.
But a senior Likud legislator, Silvan Shalom, rejected the
rotation offer and said it was 'clear' Netanyahu should be the next
premier. However, he added it was possible to find 'common ground'
for a unity government headed by the hawkish former premier.
Senior Kadima figure Meir Sheetrit also rejected a rotation
agreement as not practical. Speaking on Israel Radio, he insisted any
new government should be led by Livni.
No other party received more than five mandates in the election.
The pro-settler National Union, the ultra-Orthodox United Torah
Judaism party, the mixed Jewish-Arab Hadash and the United Arab List
faction each obtained four, while the religious-nationalist Jewish
Home, the Arab Balad faction and the left-liberal Meretz each
obtained three seats.
Twenty-five party lists did not make it past the two-percent
threshold needed to enter parliament under Israel's proportional
representation system. According to the official results published by
the Central Election Commission Wednesday, some 3.2 million of the
around 5 million eligible Israelis voted, or 65.2 per cent.
Of those, Kadima received more than 715,000 votes (22.5 per cent),
against some 680,000 for the Likud (21.4 per cent).
Lieberman received 11.6 per cent of the vote, more than in
previous election, but less than some pre-election polls had
forecast.
Labour, which in earlier political incarnations was Israel's
natural party of government for the country's first 30 years, won
only 9.9 per cent of the vote.
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