The exit polls are based on voter surveys rather than counted ballots, leaving the seat distribution subject to change.By Vered Weiss, World Israel NewsIsrael’s election exit polls left both major political blocs short of a Knesset majority, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud finished ahead of every other party while the bloc seeking to replace him held a narrow overall lead.Channel 12 gave Netanyahu’s opponents 52 seats and his allies 50, while Channel 13 projected a 53-50 split. Both results fall below the 61 seats required to control the 120-seat Knesset without support from other parties.A strong showing by the Arab parties accounted for the remainder.The Joint List and Ra’am received a combined 18 seats in Channel 12’s poll and 17 in Channel 13’s, up from their respective pre-election projections of 14 and 16.The results also reversed the order at the top of the final pre-election surveys, which had consistently shown Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar! ahead of Likud.Instead, Channel 12 put Likud first with 24 seats, followed by Yashar! with 22 and Naftali Bennett’s Beyahad with 12.The Joint List received 11, while Yair Golan’s Democrats and Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu each secured nine.Ra’am and United Torah Judaism were projected at seven apiece, with Shas and the Religious Zionism-Zehut alliance at six each.Channel 13 gave Likud 25 seats and Yashar! 23, followed by Beyahad with 14.The Joint List received 10 and the Democrats nine. Yisrael Beiteinu, Ra’am and United Torah Judaism each received seven, while Shas and Religious Zionism-Zehut each took six.The exit polls are based on voter surveys rather than counted ballots, leaving the seat distribution subject to change.One area of uncertainty involves the 3.25% electoral threshold.Ofer Winter’s Amcha Yisrael, the Reservists-Economic Party led by former minister Yoaz Hendel and economist Yaron Zelekha, and the Haredi Public party were all projected to fall below it.Parties that fail to reach the threshold receive no Knesset seats, and their votes are removed from the seat allocation among qualifying parties.Turnout was on course to reach historically high levels. Central Elections Committee figures showed 74.3% participation by 8 p.m., the highest recorded at that hour since 1988. A total of 5,449,277 of the 7,331,981 eligible voters had cast ballots, compared with 66.3% by 8 p.m. in the November 2022 election.More than 650,000 special double-envelope ballots are expected to undergo separate verification and counting. Those include votes from soldiers, diplomats, hospital patients and people voting away from their registered polling stations.Central Elections Committee officials warned that counting could continue until Friday morning. The large number of outstanding ballots could be particularly important for parties finishing near the electoral threshold.Once the results are finalized, President Isaac Herzog must hold consultations with the elected parliamentary factions before selecting a lawmaker to attempt to form a coalition.The post Exit polls give opposition narrow lead over Netanyahu as Likud emerges largest party appeared first on World Israel News.