Israeli Elections Too Close to Call, Fighting Over Results Starts

Middle East | Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 3:35:11 pm PST

The latest news from Israel’s elections: Both parties claim victory and race to form rival coalitions.

Both Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni’s Kadima party and Binyamin Netanyahu’s opposition Likud styled themselves the winners of Tuesday’s elections, after exit polls broadcast on the three television networks showed Kadima would be the largest party in the new Knesset, but the Likud-led right-wing would constitute the larger bloc.

The indecisive exit poll results, which also saw Israel Beiteinu rising to 14-15 seats and Labor slipping back to only 13, set the scene for numerous potential coalition scenarios.

Livni had argued earlier in the day that whoever headed the biggest party should be deemed to have “won the public’s trust” and should thus be charged with forming the next coalition. But Likud leaders were already working on Tuesday to construct a “blocking” majority that would deny her any such prospect.