Parties put out coalition feelers after Israeli poll (Roundup)

Feb 11, 2009, 12:09 GMT

 Tel Aviv - All but final official results Wednesday morning showed no clear winner in Israel's national elections, promising tough and complicated coalition negotiations ahead and sending the two largest parties scurrying to hold talks with potential partners.

With all regular ballots - or 99 per cent of the votes - counted, the ruling Kadima party of centrist Tzipi Livni had a one-mandate lead over the Likud party of her hardline rival Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to the near-final officials results, Kadima remains the largest party in the 120-seat Knesset with 28 seats, but the Likud more than doubled its mandates to 27.

The remaining one per cent of the ballots, those of Israeli soldiers, sailors and diplomats abroad, are due to be counted Thursday and could further narrow the gap, possibly even seeing the election ending in a dead heat

By Israeli law, President Shimon Peres nominates a legislator to form a new government after consulting with party leaders as to who has the best chance of success.

Both Netanyahu and Livni declared after the television exit poll results Tuesday that they would form the next government. On Wednesday, they began courting potential coalition partners.

Senior Kadima officials said initial victory celebrations came 'too early' in their party and that it and the Likud would need to form a unity government with a rotating premiership.

But a senior Likud legislator, Silvan Shalom, rejected the rotation offer and said it was 'clear' Netanyahu should be the next premier. However, he added it was possible to find 'common ground' for a unity government headed by the hawkish former premier.

Senior Kadima figure Meir Sheetrit also rejected a rotation agreement as not practical. Speaking on Israel Radio, he insisted any new government should be led by Livni.

Livni met with Avigdor Lieberman, head of the ultra-nationalist Israel Beiteinu party, whose 15 seats make him a key player in any coalition negotiation and who said Tuesday night that he preferred a nationalist, right-wing coalition.

The Moldovian-born Lieberman was slated to meet later Wednesday with Netanyahu.

The Likud leader, for his part, met with the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which won 11 mandates in the election and is also seen as a key coalition partner. Shas already declared it would support Netanyahu as the next premier.

Another potential key partner in either a Likud or a Kadima-led government, the centre-left Labour Party, appeared however to be heading for the opposition. Party leader Ehud Barak said before the election that a poor showing - Labour received only 13 mandates - would necessitate a period out of government in order for the party to rebuild itself.

No other party received more than five mandates in the election.

The pro-settler National Union, the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, the mixed Jewish-Arab Hadash and the United Arab List faction each obtained four, while the religious-nationalist Jewish Home, the Arab Balad faction and the left-liberal Meretz each obtained three seats.

Twenty-five party lists did not make it past the two-percent threshold needed to enter parliament under Israel's proportional representation system. According to the official results published by the Central Election Commission Wednesday, some 3.2 million of the around 5 million eligible Israelis voted, or 65.2 per cent.

Of those, Kadima received more than 715,000 votes (22.5 per cent), against some 680,000 for the Likud (21.4 per cent).

Lieberman received 11.6 per cent of the vote, against 9.9 per cent for Labour.