Israel Certifies Election Results, Leaving All Blocs Short of a Majority

Israel's Central Elections Committee certified the results of the October 27 parliamentary election on November 4, 2026, and its chairman, Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, formally presented them to President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem. The decision sets up negotiations over who can form a government in a 120-seat parliament where no bloc has the 61 seats required for a majority.

The Israeli presidency confirmed that Herzog received the official results at the President's Residence on Wednesday. Independently, Anadolu Agency reported that the certification vote was 15 in favour, two against and 14 abstentions. The final seat allocation leaves Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political bloc with 53 seats, the other opposition bloc with 48, and two Arab-led lists with 19. Those are parliamentary seat counts, not a prediction of which parties will ultimately support a governing coalition.

The committee's decision came amid allegations about the vote. Independent reporting from the Times of Israel says election officials rejected claims that identified irregularities could have changed the result, while some representatives of the outgoing coalition voted against certification or abstained. Sohlberg said suspected wrongdoing should be investigated, but the potential impact identified so far would not alter the allocation of seats. Certification is a formal electoral decision, not a judicial determination that every complaint is false or that further investigation is prohibited.

Herzog is consulting parliamentary factions before deciding whom to ask to assemble a government. His office announced on November 2 that consultations would start on November 4, with smaller factions heard first. Under the timetable described by the presidency, the designated lawmaker would have 28 days to form a government, with a possible extension of up to 14 days. The president has not, in the official statements reviewed here, assigned a mandate to a particular candidate.

The result is now certified, but the government remains undecided. The next consequential developments are Herzog's formal mandate decision, signed coalition agreements, any judicially substantiated election challenges, and findings from ongoing inquiries that materially alter the public record.