After a tough election campaign in which it was balancing on the threshold, Meretz is expected to receive six or seven seats in the 24th Knesset, according to exit polls on Tuesday night.
On channels 12 and 11, Meretz received 6 seats, and on Channel 13 News, 7 seats.
In this campaign, Meretz joined the “gevalt” calls, warning that if it failed to pass the threshold, Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu will remain prime minister.
During election day, Meretz repeated its slogan: “we mustn’t lose Meretz.”
Party leader Nitzan Horowitz warned on Tuesday that there was an “organized right-wing effort to sabotage Meretz’s campaign.
“We see reports from the polling stations,” he said. “We’ve heard that in some places Meretz slips were taken. We also heard that some of our activists received threats. These are part of an effort to prevent people from voting Meretz – because if there is no Meretz, Netanyahu and his allies, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, will have a government of 61.”
It is believed that in the previous three rounds of elections, Meretz received support from the Arab sector. However, low turnout Tuesday among Arabs raised concerns in the party. MK Tamar Zandberg and candidate Issawi Freij expressed their concern in a visit to Kafr Qassem.
“The low turnout in Arab society is worrying,” Zandberg said. “We are working to get as many voters as we can – Arabs and Jews – who understand that the Meretz slip is the most important way to replace Netanyahu,” she said.