Counting votes (archive)
Counting votes (archive)Israel news photo: Flash 90

Channel 2 News has updated its exit poll, based on real-time election results.

The new results are not a significant change from the exit poll that was published shortly after the polls closed, but it does show a shift in the numbers of seats for some of the parties.

The updated poll is as follows:

Likud-Beytenu: 33
Yesh Atid: 18
Labor: 16
Shas: 12
Jewish Home: 11
Hatnua: 7
United Torah Judaism: 7
Meretz: 6
Hadash: 4
Ra’am-Ta’al: 3
Balad: 3

Both Kadima and Otzma LeYisrael do not pass the electoral threshold, but Mina Tzemach, head of the Dahaf Institute who conducted the poll for Channel 2, noted that both parties are very close to the threshold.

The results give the rightist bloc 63 seats and the center-left bloc 57. Despite the fact that the Likud’s party has gone down in comparison with the outgoing government, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is expected to form the next government.

In a victory speech on Tuesday night, Netanyahu thanked the Israeli public for electing him a third time to lead the Israeli government, and said he would work to form as wide a coalition as possible.

With Yesh Atid’s significant achievement, it is believed Netanyahu will turn to its leader, Yair Lapid, and ask him to be a senior coalition partner. In a statement released shortly after exit polls were published, Netanyahu said that he had spoken to Lapid and told him that “we have an opportunity to do great things for Israel.”

Click here for live election results which are updated every 10 minutes.