Israel's Central Election Commission Finalizes Knesset Election Results

Israel's Central Election Commission (CEC) has officially confirmed the final results for the 26th Knesset elections. The Likud party secured the largest share of seats with 27 mandates, followed by Yashar with 21. Other parties that successfully passed the electoral threshold and will be represented in the parliament include the United List (11 seats), Democrats (8), RAAM (8), Yisrael Beiteinu (7), Otzma Yehudit (7), United Torah Judaism (7), Shas (6), and Religious Zionism (6). A total of 120 mandates were distributed among these parties, with others failing to meet the required threshold.

The overall voter turnout for the elections was 77.9%. The CEC reported counting 5,716,665 ballots, of which 5,690,778 were deemed valid and 25,887 invalid. The electoral threshold for entering the Knesset was set at 3.25% of valid votes, equating to 184,947 votes.

In a prior directive, the CEC had stipulated that ballots with defects or errors in their formatting should not be automatically invalidated. The primary criterion for validity is the unambiguous expression of the voter's intent, rather than the presence of formal irregularities.

Earlier, the CEC Chairman, Noam Sohlberg, who also serves as Deputy President of the Supreme Court, had requested the Head of Shin Bet, David Zini, to investigate potential cases of voter bribery and illegal foreign funding of the election campaign. The CEC also finalized the count of votes from "double envelopes," a category for specific voter groups. While Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, received the most votes in this category, the overall balance of power between the major political blocs remained unchanged by these results.