Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud party, has stressed on Tuesday, after the first exit polls, that he is satisfied with the possible outcome of a narrow victory in the framework of the elections being held in Israel.
According to exit polls, prepared by Channel 12, the right-wing bloc, led by the Likud leader, would accumulate 61 seats against the outgoing coalition of the Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, with 55 seats.
The Central Election Committee has announced that voter turnout during the elections was 71.3 percent, the highest since 2015, while also dismissing claims of electoral fraud by Likud, as reported by ‘The Times of Israel’.
«Likud warns of a large-scale effort to violently falsify the election results,» the party said in a statement after, in an attempt to mobilize voters, Netanyahu himself shared on his social networks images of alleged lines of citizens waiting to be able to vote.
Following this, verification reports pointed to the images corresponding to the 2019 vote, the year in which he shared the same snapshots. Netanyahu already made similar claims during past elections.
A senior member of Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party, however, has urged patience until the votes are finished being counted. «I ask to wait for the actual results,» Welfare Minister Meir Cohen told Channel 12.
Israel is holding its fifth elections since 2019 this Tuesday, polls in which one of the main points of interest lies with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (1996 – 199 and 2009 – 2021) and his aspirations to retake the head of government.
