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Backgrounder: Election results for key Israeli parties

Xinhua, March 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Official results showed the Likud party led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won a clear victory in Tuesday's elections, with 99 percent of votes counted early Wednesday morning.

Here is a summary of the main political parties that passed the electoral threshold and made it to the next Israeli parliament, according to the official tally.

LIKUD

Israel's main right-wing party has been in power since 2009. Led by incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it expresses hardline stances regarding Iran's nuclear program and the Palestinians. In the past Netanyahu expressed support for a two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but on the eve of the elections he said that if he will be re-elected, "there will be no Palestinian state."

The party has been criticized for lacking an agenda on socio-economic issues such as high living costs and housing crisis.

Pre-election polls showed that Netanyahu might hand over the post to Herzog, leader of the center-left Zionist Union. However, officials results Wednesday showed that the Israeli leader won a stunning victory with 30 seats of the 120 seats in the parliament.

ZIONIST UNION

Israel's main opposition party and Netanyahu's principle rival. The centrist party was formed in December 2014, as a coalition of the historic Labor, headed by Isaac Herzog, and Hatnua (the movement), a two-year-old party led by former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni.

Herzog has pledged to stop the Jewish construction outside major settlement blocs in the Palestinian territory, and to revive the peace talks with the Palestinians.

He also emphasized his economic platform, which promises to restrain the high cost of living in the country, particularly the housing prices.

According to the official results, the Zionist Union won 24 seats.

THE JOINT LIST

The Joint List includes the Arab parties (Balad, Ra'am, Ta'al) and Hadash, a socialist Arab-Jewish party. Announced in January and headed by recently appointed Hadash leader Aiman Uda, the list was established in response to a controversial law, which raised the electoral threshold, threatening the existence of the parties individually.

The list advocates for co-existence and equal representation for Israeli Arabs, who constitute 20 percent of the population, and improvement of the ties between Jews and Arabs amid mounting tensions, fueled by racism and nationalistic sentiments, in the Israeli society.

The Joint List won 14 seats, making it the third-largest party in the Israeli parliament.

YESH ATID

Yesh Atid, a center-oriented party led by former journalist Yair Lapid, had been a dark horse in the 2013 elections, gaining 19 seats in the last parliament.

It had been a vital partner of Netanyahu's ruling coalition, with Lapid serving as finance minister in the cabinet.

Lapid was fired by Netanyahu for an alleged joint attempt with Livni to topple his government.

Official results put Lapid and his party at 11 seats.

KULANU

This new party was formed by Moshe Kahlon, a former Likud member and one of the more popular Israeli politicians in recent years.

The party's agenda is mainly focused on socioeconomic issues. It won ten seats in the parliament.

JEWISH HOME

The ultra-nationalistic right-wing party represents mainly the settlement movement and modern Orthodox. The party supports construction in the settlements, annexing the West Bank to Israel and has passed nationalistic and anti-immigration legislation at the parliament over the past two years.

The Jewish Home garnered only eight seats, down from the 12 seats it gained in the last elections.

SHAS

The ultra-Orthodox party, led by Aryeh Deri, caters especially for religious Jews of Sephardic origin (from Arab states) and sets out to help Israel's poor. It won seven seats in the next parliament.

YISRAEL BEITENU

Israel Beytenu, an ultra right-wing party led by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, took a significant crash in the elections, losing six seats and ending with only six seats.

The party got entangled in corruption scandal in which several senior party members are involved.

UNITED TORAH JUDAISM

United Torah Judaism party, the ultra-orthodox Ashkenazi (European Jews) party, won six seats.

MERETZ

A historic left wing party, headed by Zehava Gal-On, advocates peace with the Palestinians and economic equality. It barely crossed the electoral threshold with four seats. Enditem