"Bibi, Bibi, king of Israel," Netanyahu supporters chanted as they prepared for a night of anticipated celebration.
By EYTAN HALONLikud supporters celebrate as the exit polls for Israel's March 2, 2020 elections are announced(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The small crowd of supporters who gathered early at the Likud Party’s election night headquarters cheered with elation as exit polls showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the verge of a governing majority.The three major television channels showed Likud receiving 36 or 37 seats and, critically, 60 seats for Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc, one seat away from a majority coalition.“Bibi, Bibi, king of Israel,” Netanyahu supporters chanted as they prepared for a night of anticipated celebration.“A big victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and for the Likud Party,” Culture Minister Miri Regev told Channel 12 before cautioning, “it’s only an exit poll and we’ll wait for the actual results.”Unlike the build-up to the previous two elections in 2019, the days preceding this vote were dominated by a Likud campaign emphasizing the party’s positive momentum, rather than the gevalt campaign lately associated with Netanyahu. Ahead of Monday’s election, polls showed a marginal lead for the Likud.“Thank you,” Netanyahu wrote on Twitter following the exit poll. In May 2019, the Likud voted to dissolve the Knesset after securing a right-wing coalition of 60 Knesset members, falling one short of a majority.In the hours before the polls closed, however, the positive campaign gave way to warnings of low turnout in party strongholds and calls for supporters to head to the ballot box. Netanyahu took to social media to issue an “emergency” report, stating turnout was low in locations including the West Bank, Tiberias, Eilat and Kiryat Gat.“The media is trying to quell Likud voters,” Netanyahu wrote on social media about 90 minutes before polls closed. “We are still one seat behind Blue and White. We need to close the gap. You have to go out and vote.”Netanyahu’s social media account became one of the major talking points of Election Day after he shared an edited video apparently showing Blue and White leader Benny Gantz telling individuals not to vote for the Blue and White Party. The Central Election Committee subsequently ordered the clip to be removed after a complaint was submitted by Blue and White.Despite the promising forecast, and the tightest of margins, Likud supporters will need to wait until the early hours to see whether the exit polls prove to be accurate.
Should the results materialize as desired by those at the Likud headquarters, legislators could form a government on the third time around, bringing an end to a seemingly intractable series of elections.
