Israel Election Results: Double Envelope Votes Counted, No Bloc Majority

Israel's Central Elections Committee has completed the count of votes from "double envelopes," typically cast by individuals voting outside their registered district, for the 26th Knesset elections. The Likud party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, received the most support among these voters, but the overall balance of power between major political blocs remained unchanged. As of Thursday, October 29, Netanyahu's bloc holds 53 seats, Gadi Eisenkot's bloc has 48, and Arab parties collectively have 19.

In the double envelope count, Likud garnered 73,130 votes (18.64%), followed by Gadi Eisenkot's party with 58,729 votes (14.97%), and Naftali Bennett's party with 52,422 votes (13.36%). Other parties receiving significant support in this category include Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu with 38,485 votes (9.81%), Yair Golan's Democrats with 31,513 votes (8.03%), Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit with 23,471 votes (5.98%), Aryeh Deri's Shas with 19,160 votes (4.88%), Yahadut HaTorah with 16,276 votes (4.15%), the United Arab List with 12,420 votes (3.17%), and Ra'am led by Mansour Abbas with 10,689 votes (2.73%).

Despite the completion of the double envelope count, the distribution of Knesset seats among the major blocs did not shift. Neither the national camp nor the change bloc secured the 61 seats required to form a government independently. The final seat allocation based on processed results shows Likud as the largest party with 27 seats, followed by "Yeshar" with 21, "Behad" with 12, the United Arab List with 11, Democrats and Ra'am with eight each, Yisrael Beiteinu, Otzma Yehudit, and Yahadut HaTorah with seven each, and Shas and "Religious Zionism - Zehut" with six each.

Initial projections after 28% of ballots were processed indicated 59 seats for the national camp and 46 for the change bloc. However, after 85.6% of votes were processed, the numbers stabilized at 53 and 48 seats respectively. Parties like Yoaz Hendel and Ofer Winter's "Miluimnikim - Kalkalit" (2.71%) and "Amcha Israel" (1.67%) failed to pass the 3.25% electoral threshold.

Concurrently, an investigation into potential foreign interference in the elections is ongoing. Central Elections Committee Chairman Noam Solberg has requested the Shin Bet investigate classified information relevant to the electoral process. However, Acting Director General Dean Livne stated there is no evidence of systematic fraud, asserting the voting procedures were followed correctly. Voter turnout for the October 27 election was 77.7%, with 5,695,682 out of over 7.3 million eligible voters participating. The final results are pending official approval by the Central Elections Committee.