The elections for the 17th Knesset drew a total of 3,188,075
voters to the polls. The threshold for entry to the Knesset
altogether was 62,767 votes and each mandate required 24,609
votes. So therefore the minimum number of seats that party
needs to enter will normally be three. The number of faulty
ballots came to 49,704 and 185,235 votes went to parties that
did not pass the threshold, thus these votes essentially did
not count.
After two days of counting some 170,000 ballots that required
crosschecking Judge Dorit Beinish, chairman of the Central
Election Committee, released the following final results:
Kadima - 690,095 votes, representing 21.9 percent of the vote
or 29 mandates.
Emet (Labor) - 472,958 votes, representing 15 percent of the
vote or 19 mandates.
Shas - 299,130 votes, representing 9.5 percent of the vote or
12 mandates.
Likud - 282,070 votes, representing 8.9 percent of the vote
or 12 mandates.
Yisrael Beiteinu (Lieberman) - 281,850 votes, representing
8.9 percent of the vote or 12 mandates.
HaIchud HaLeumi- 223,838 votes, representing 7.1 percent of
the vote or 9 mandates.
Pensioners - 185,790 votes, representing 5.9 percent of the
vote or 7 mandates.
United Torah Judaism - 146,958 votes, representing 4.6
percent of the vote or 6 mandates.
Meretz - 118,365 votes, representing 3.7 percent of the vote
or 5 mandates.
Raam - 94,460 votes, representing 3 percent of the vote or 4
mandates.
Chadash - 85,830 votes, representing 2.7 percent of the vote
or 3 mandates.
Balad - 72,013 votes, representing 2.2 percent of the vote or
3 mandates.
Nineteen parties failed to meet the threshold. The Green
Party needed another 15,000 votes and the Green Leaf Party
fell 22,000 votes short.
The following list shows the number of votes received by
parties that did not reach the minimum number of votes needed
to win a seat in the Knesset:
Green Party - 47,634 votes
Green Leaf Party - 40,419
Chaf (Marzel) - 25,935 votes
Tafnit - 18,746 votes
Zeh - 14,007 votes
Kuf Zayin - 3,819 votes
Kuf - 3,695 votes
Cherut - 2,883 votes
Hei - 2,280 votes
Patz - 2,164 votes
Paz - 1,765 votes
Katz - 1,509 votes
Zayin - 1,384 votes
Tzadi Hei - 1,278 votes
Peh Chaf - 1,218 votes
Kuf Peh - 738 votes
Feh Sofit - 580 votes
The 12 parties that did get into the Knesset won a total of
114 mandates by winning at least 24,609 votes per mandate,
and the other 6 mandates were won through surplus vote deals
signed before the elections. According to these agreements
parties passed on unneeded votes to their allies that fell
short of the number of votes needed for another mandate.
These six mandates went to UTJ, Labor, Likud, Kadima, Balad
and Meretz.
