Overview
- Televised exit polls released after polls closed on Tuesday showed the Eisenkot-led opposition with a narrow edge in many projections while Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud was the largest single party, but no bloc reached the 61 seats needed to form a government.
- Voter turnout was unusually high, with officials reporting turnout well above past elections, and that surge — especially in Arab-majority areas — is tied to exit-poll projections of roughly 17–18 seats for Arab-led parties.
- Election-day disputes included three arrests for alleged voter bribery, multiple formal complaints about missing or defaced ballot slips, and the Central Elections Committee’s rejection of Likud’s request to extend voting hours.
- Roughly 600,000 special 'double-envelope' ballots, which cover soldiers and other voters and are counted separately, will be tallied in the coming days and could change seat allocations for parties near the electoral threshold.
- With neither side assured of a majority, the next phase will be formal counting and certification (official results due Nov. 4), followed by potentially protracted coalition bargaining or the possibility of another election if no leader can assemble 61 seats.