The Meretz party will not be seated in the 25th Knesset, according to data released from Israel’s Central Elections Committee Thursday evening.
With the vote count completed, Meretz fell 4,124 votes shy of the 3.25% minimum threshold required for entry into the Knesset. The party received just 3.16% of the total vote.
The Central Elections Committee submitted its report with the preliminary results of the election Thursday evening. The results will be finalized next week, after recounts of contested ballot boxes are conducted and investigations into any claims of fraud completed.
According to the CEC report, a total of 4,763,694 votes were cast, representing a turnout rate of 70.6%.
After invalid votes were removed from the count, the minimum threshold equaled 154,820 votes, with each Knesset seat equivalent to 36,214 votes.
The failure of both left-wing Meretz and the Arab nationalist Balad party to enter the 25th Knesset ensure a broader majority for the right-wing bloc, which under the preliminary results is projected to receive 64 seats: 32 for the Likud, 14 for the Religious Zionist Party’s joint ticket with Otzma Yehudit and Noam, 11 for Shas, and 7 for United Torah Judaism.
The parties aligned with the current government received a total of 50 seats, with the five remaining mandates going to the Arab Hadash-Ta’al party in the Opposition.
Yisrael Beytenu gained one seat in the vote count Thursday evening, rising from five seats to six, at the expense of United Torah Judaism, which fell from eight to seven.
Yesh Atid is projected to receive 24 seats, followed by National Unity with 12, Yisrael Beytenu with six, the United Arab List (Ra'am) with five, and Labor with four.
Meretz, founded in 1992, has enjoyed representation in every Knesset for the past 30 years, either as an independent faction or on a joint ticket with other left-wing parties.