not everywhere· Politics· Updated 08:02

Vote Counting Underway for Double Envelopes in Israeli Elections

The Central Elections Committee began counting between 430,000 and 480,000 "double envelopes" at 1:00 AM on Thursday in the Knesset parking lot facility. This special ballot count, which includes votes from soldiers and those voting outside their designated polling stations, is expected to conclude by Thursday evening and could alter the final distribution of Knesset mandates.

5 newsrooms · 1 language · since 01:13

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Vote Counting Underway for Double Envelopes in Israeli Elections — Illustration by baba

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What happened

01The Central Elections Committee began counting between 430,000 and 480,000 double envelopes at 1:00 AM on Thursday in the Knesset parking lot.
02Preliminary results with 90.2% of votes counted show the current coalition with 53 mandates, the opposition with 48, and Arab parties with 19.
03The Likud party leads the preliminary results with 26 mandates, followed by "Yesh" with 21 mandates.
04A single mandate shifted between Arab parties, with Ra'am rising to seven mandates and the Joint List dropping to 12.
05Results from 11,712 of 12,018 regular polling stations, representing over 5.1 million voters, have been processed.
06The Reservists and Economic and Amcha Israel parties are currently below the electoral threshold.
07The double envelope process ensures voter anonymity by separating inner ballot envelopes from outer ones before mixing and counting them.
08Final election results for the 26th Knesset are expected to be released on Thursday evening.

To preserve voting secrecy, election workers separate the inner voting envelopes from the outer ones and mix them to ensure voter anonymity before counting. Alongside this process, the committee has been receiving and verifying results from regular polling stations. By early Thursday, results from 11,712 out of 12,018 regular polling stations, representing over 5.1 million voters, had been processed, with the remaining 306 stations undergoing quality control checks.

With 90.2% of the total votes counted, preliminary results show the Likud party leading with 26 mandates, followed by "Yesh" with 21. The current coalition is projected to win 53 mandates, the opposition bloc 48, and Arab parties 19. A minor shift occurred among the Arab parties, as Ra'am gained one mandate to reach seven, while the Joint List dropped to 12. The parties Reservists and Economic and Amcha Israel remain below the electoral threshold.

Summarized by baba from the reports of 5 newsrooms. Updated 09:32

Latest report: JDN. Read JDN’s original