#knesset

Israel's elections commission said on Wednesday, November 4, that it had investigated all parties' fraud claims about the October 27 vote and found "no evidence of irregularities that compromised the integrity of the election or affected its results." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and supporters had claimed, without evidence, that Arab-led parties "stole" the election. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara also rejected a request to question elected officials without supporting evidence.

President Isaac Herzog accepted the certified results and began consultations with party leaders. Neither Netanyahu's coalition (53 seats) nor opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot's bloc (48) has the 61 needed to govern; Arab-led parties won a record 19. Ra'am said it would recommend Eisenkot, bringing his expected support to 56, per Ynet; the Joint List's 11 seats could push him past 61. Degel HaTorah said it would back neither man. Once talks end, Herzog picks a nominee, who gets 28 days to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension. He urged both camps to compromise to avoid another election.

Results released October 29 from Israel's October 27 election give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, down from 68 at its peak, with his main opposition, led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, at 48 and Arab-led parties at a record 19. A majority needs 61. Results are to be certified and delivered to the president the following Wednesday.

After the head of the election committee, Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, said "serious suspicions" of foreign interference had been brought to him and asked the Shin Bet to investigate, though he could not verify them, Likud declared that "the elections in Israel have been stolen!" Qatar called the allegations "ridiculous and dangerous." The committee said the probe does not affect the final results and that claims of systematic violations are baseless; the Shin Bet said it was not casting aspersions on any part of the population. Eisenkot said Likud was doing this "because they lost." The opposition could reach a majority only with the Arab-led parties, a rare and politically risky step.