Surplus Vote Agreements Boost Knesset Parties' Mandates

Surplus vote agreements signed before the 26th Knesset elections proved significant in the distribution of mandates, with five parties benefiting by gaining an additional seat. Gadi Eisenkot's Yisrael Beiteinu party secured an extra mandate through an agreement with Yair Golan's Democrats. Other parties that gained a mandate from these agreements include Likud, Together, United Torah Judaism, and Ra'am.

Likud's surplus agreement was with the Religious Zionism and Identity parties. Naftali Bennett's Together party signed with Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu. United Torah Judaism had an agreement with Shas, and Ra'am with the Joint List. Surplus agreements allow two lists that have passed the electoral threshold to combine their votes for the remaining mandate distribution, according to the Bader-Ofer method. In this election, each of the five agreements resulted in one additional mandate for a signatory party.

Following the counting of approximately 99.5% of the votes, Likud leads with 27 mandates, Eisenkot's Yisrael Beiteinu has 21, and Together has 12. The Joint List secured 11 mandates, the Democrats and Ra'am each received 8, Yisrael Beiteinu, Otzma Yehudit, and United Torah Judaism each got 7, and Shas, Religious Zionism, and Identity each received 6.

The bloc picture remains unchanged, with the current coalition bloc holding 53 mandates, the change bloc holding 48, and Arab parties holding 19. This outcome means neither of the two main blocs possesses the 61-mandate majority required to form a government.