Final vote tally shows hardliner Netanyahu won 30 seats in Israeli elections

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing Likud party won 30 seats in Israel's 2015 parliamentary election, according to the final results released Thursday by the Central Elections Committee.

The center-left Zionist Union, the main opposition party in Israel's 120-seat parliament, won 24 seats.

The Joint List, an alliance of four Arab parties, won 13 seats, making it the third-largest party in the next parliament.

The final count showed that Meretz, a Zionist left party, garnered five seats, and not four as suggested Wednesday by the partial count.

Following the latest result, Meretz's chairwoman Zehava Galon said Thursday that she would remain as the party's leader.

Earlier on Wednesday, Galon announced that she would resign from the leadership if the final count had failed to top four seats, which would have been a decrease of two seats from the previous parliament.

On other results, the centrists Yesh Atid and Kulanu won 11 and 10 seats respectively. The ultra-nationalist Jewish Home and Yisrael Beitenu won eight and six seats respectively. The ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism won seven and six seats.

Yahad, an extreme-right party, failed to pass the electoral threshold.

The final result includes about 200,000 votes of soldiers, diplomats, prisoners and hospitalized people.

Voter turnout reached 72.36 percent, 4.59 percentage points higher than the previous elections in 2013. Endit