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No immediate winner in Israeli elections

Published : 23 Mar 2021, 22:58

  DF News Desk
An Israeli casts her vote during the Israeli parliamentary elections at a polling station for people under COVID-19 quarantine in Tel Aviv, Israel, on March 23, 2021. Photo: JINI/Handout via Xinhua.

Exit polls for Israel's fourth election in two years finally suggested on Tuesday no immediate winner, leaving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political fate still undecided, reported Xinhua.

Exit polls on Israel's three main TV channels showed that a bloc of Netanyahu's Likud party and three other right-wing parties that vowed ahead of the elections to join a coalition headed by the longtime leader, won 53-54 seats together. Yamina, a pro-settler party and a former close ally of the Likud, gained seven to eight seats.

Netanyahu needs at least 61 seats in the 120-seat parliament to form a governing coalition.

The unprecedented fourth elections held in fewer than two years comes amid a lingering political deadlock in Israel after a series of inconclusive elections.