Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main challenger, former military chief Benny Gantz, were locked in a neck and neck race Tuesday as exit polls showed no clear winner in an election that was seen as a referendum on the long-serving leader
He said he had already begun talking to fellow right wing and religious parties about forming a new coalition.
His attacks on the Arab sector fueled calls for a boycott, and appeared to result in relatively low turnout by Arab voters. Israel’s central elections commission banned parties from bringing cameras into polling stations after Likud party activists were caught with hidden cameras in Arab towns. Yohanan Plesner, a former lawmaker and head of the nonpartisan Israel Democracy Institute, called the close and conflicting exit polls “an unprecedented situation.”Once the final results come in, attention will turn to President Reuven Rivlin. The president, whose responsibilities are mostly ceremonial, is charged with choosing a prime minister after consulting with party leaders and determining who has the best chance of putting together a majority coalition.
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