Benjamin Netanyahu has won a landslide victory in Tuesday’s national election, defeating decisively a challenge from centre-left opposition leader Isaac Herzog and putting the rightwing Israeli leader on track to serve a fourth term, poll results gathered overnight show.
With 99.5 per cent of votes counted, Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party is on course to secure 30 seats — a quarter of the Knesset — with a commanding lead over the 24 garnered by Mr Herzog’s centre-left Zionist Union, a margin big enough to give him first crack at forming a new coalition.
After consulting with Likud and other parties, Reuven Rivlin, Israel’s president, will now ask the leader he considers best placed to form a coalition — almost certainly Mr Netanyahu — to begin building one.