Israel polls: With 86% of votes counted, Iongest-serving PM Netanyahu set for stunning comeback

New Delhi: With 86 percent of the votes counted in the Israel elections, former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is headed for a victory in a major political comeback.

The partial results show that Netanyahu’s Likud and its far-right allies will easily cross the majority mark in Israel’s fifth election in four years.

The alliance is projected to win 65 seats in the 120-seat Knesset or the Israeli parliament.

Meanwhile, addressing supporters who chanted “King of Israel”, Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, said his Likud party had received “a huge vote of confidence.”

While Israelis are split broadly between those who support or oppose Netanyahu, the former premier has been buoyed by votes for his extreme-right allies.

The Religious Zionism bloc of Itamar Ben-Gvir has made major gains and was emerging as the third-largest party, behind Yesh Atid.

The controversial Ben-Gvir heralded the party’s showing as a “great achievement”, which is expected to hand the right wing a majority in the 120-seat parliament.

Despite Israel’s election fatigue, voters came out in force and pushed turnout to its highest rate since 2015, topping 71 percent, according to official figures.

The coalition led by caretaker PM Yair Lapid was formed by bringing an Arab party into the fold after Mansour Abbas pulled his Raam party from a united slate with other Arab-led parties.

But Raam’s pioneering support for a coalition was not viewed positively across Arab society, which makes up around 20 percent of Israel’s population.

With input from agencies

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