Although the Knesset election results were already known to him, President Isaac Herzog had to go through the legal formality of receiving them on Wednesday from elections committee chairman Judge Yitzhak Amit.
Herzog said that on Sunday of next week he hopes to task a willing legislator with the mission of forming a government.
He reiterated his non-interference in the electoral process saying that he had not tried to influence any political leader one way or the other.
Both he and Amit were pleased with the relatively large voter turnout in which more than 5 million eligible voters from the whole political spectrum and all sectors of the nation had participated and had exercised their democratic right to influence the future of the state.
Neither had any doubt that the outcome of the elections had accurately reflected the will of the people and Herzog urged that political disputes should not be permitted to disrupt the togetherness of the nation.