The counting of the last 167,000 votes in Tuesday's election - those of the soldiers, prison inmates, hospital patients, and diplomats abroad - led to minor changes in the tallying of the Knesset seats. The Likud rose to 38 seats, double that of Labor, and the National Religious Party's representation jumped to 6. The Arab Hadash party of Ahmed Tibi and Muhammed Barakeh, and Am Echad of Amir Peretz, both dropped to three Knesset seats.
The margin between the two largest parties, 19 seats, is the largest in 34 years. In the 1969 elections, the Alignment, forerunner of today's Labor, received 56 seats - the most ever received by one party in Israel's history - while Gachal, predecessor of the Likud, received only 26 seats.
As a result of the final count, MK Ayoub Kara of the Likud, who represents the party's Druze sector, and former MK Nissan Slomiansky (NRP), a resident of the Shomron community Elkanah, will again enter the Knesset. They come at the expense of former MK Addisu Messele (Am Echad) and Dov Hanin, the Jewish member of Hadash, who thought for two days that they would be MKs.
NRP leader Effie Eitam thanked the IDF soldiers for granting his party an extra mandate. "The confidence that the soldiers placed in us reflects more than anything the central message of the NRP," Eitam said, "that army service can be combined with faith, tradition, and values." Eitam also phoned Addisu Messele, and expressed his regrets that Messele, who served in the 14th Knesset, would not be in the 16th Knesset.
The final Knesset line-up thus gives the Likud the possibility of forming a "narrow" right-wing government of 69 MKs: Shas (11), National Union (7), NRP (6), United Torah Judaism (5), and Yisrael B'Aliyah (2), plus the Likud's 38. Am Echad would probably join such a government as well, giving it 72 seats. However, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is continuing to pursue his preferred government, namely, a coalition with Labor and possibly with Shinui.
The margin between the two largest parties, 19 seats, is the largest in 34 years. In the 1969 elections, the Alignment, forerunner of today's Labor, received 56 seats - the most ever received by one party in Israel's history - while Gachal, predecessor of the Likud, received only 26 seats.
As a result of the final count, MK Ayoub Kara of the Likud, who represents the party's Druze sector, and former MK Nissan Slomiansky (NRP), a resident of the Shomron community Elkanah, will again enter the Knesset. They come at the expense of former MK Addisu Messele (Am Echad) and Dov Hanin, the Jewish member of Hadash, who thought for two days that they would be MKs.
NRP leader Effie Eitam thanked the IDF soldiers for granting his party an extra mandate. "The confidence that the soldiers placed in us reflects more than anything the central message of the NRP," Eitam said, "that army service can be combined with faith, tradition, and values." Eitam also phoned Addisu Messele, and expressed his regrets that Messele, who served in the 14th Knesset, would not be in the 16th Knesset.
The final Knesset line-up thus gives the Likud the possibility of forming a "narrow" right-wing government of 69 MKs: Shas (11), National Union (7), NRP (6), United Torah Judaism (5), and Yisrael B'Aliyah (2), plus the Likud's 38. Am Echad would probably join such a government as well, giving it 72 seats. However, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is continuing to pursue his preferred government, namely, a coalition with Labor and possibly with Shinui.