Israel’s Central Elections Committee formally certified the October 27 vote for the 26th Knesset on November 4, approving the outcome by 15 votes to two, with 14 abstentions. Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, who chairs the committee, then presented the results to President Isaac Herzog. The approval puts the election result on the official record, but it does not itself choose a new prime minister or settle the separate investigation into allegations surrounding the vote. The seat picture makes the next stage unusually important: the pro-Netanyahu parties have 53 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, the parties grouped around Gadi Eisenkot have 48, and the Joint List and Ra’am together hold 19. None of those groupings reaches 61 alone. Those three blocs are a way of describing possible alignments, not official party lists or a prearranged governing coalition.
A formal vote, and a contested political backdrop
The committee’s wider plenum endorsed the results with 15 in favour, two against and 14 abstaining. The opposition representatives voted to approve; two Otzma Yehudit representatives opposed, while other members associated with the outgoing governing parties abstained. This was the full committee’s decision, distinct from the smaller presidium’s earlier ballot, which had a different tally.
At the presidency ceremony later that day, Sohlberg delivered the results to Herzog. In remarks translated and published by the Times of Israel, he urged political actors not to undermine public confidence in the electoral outcome. Herzog also stressed that allegations should be investigated while rejecting rhetoric that stigmatizes Arab citizens as a group.
Certification is a legal and administrative milestone, not a finding that every allegation has been resolved. That distinction helps explain how the committee could approve the result while the Shin Bet security-service inquiry and related law-enforcement questions remained open.
Sources: President Herzog statement on election integrity and ongoing investigation · Election panel reports audit of 9,069 polling station protocols and no outcome-changing findings · Election chief presents certified results to President Herzog; vote and Shin Bet investigation · Herzog receives 26th Knesset election results and begins mandate consultations · The CEC plenary vote: 15 in favour, 2 against, 14 abstentions · President Herzog Receives the Official Results of the Elections to the 26th Knesset
What the inspection of 9,069 polling stations actually found
The Central Elections Committee said its post-election review examined protocols from 9,069 polling stations, roughly three-quarters of regular polling stations. Where questions arose, the review went deeper into records and election materials. The committee’s statement, reproduced by Israeli news outlets, reported no findings that indicated the election’s integrity had been compromised or its outcome changed.
That is a statement about the result of an election-administration review. It does not mean every vote was manually recounted, that investigators found no isolated error, or that a separate criminal or security investigation has been closed. The committee said individual complaints were reviewed and corrections made where the source records warranted them.
The distinction matters because some outgoing coalition figures alleged fraud or foreign interference involving Arab voters. Those accusations remained unsubstantiated as claims capable of overturning the certified result, while a Shin Bet inquiry into possible interference continued. Neither the existence of a probe nor an allegation establishes guilt by a community or a party.
Sources: President Herzog statement on election integrity and ongoing investigation · Election panel reports audit of 9,069 polling station protocols and no outcome-changing findings · Election chief presents certified results to President Herzog; vote and Shin Bet investigation · CEC official statement audit: 9,069 polling stations, about 75 percent of regular stations
The 53–48–19 seat picture, and the arithmetic of a majority
The final party allocation reported by the committee gives Likud 27 seats; Eisenkot’s Yashar 21; B’Yachad 12; the Joint List 11; the Democrats eight; Ra’am eight; Yisrael Beytenu seven; United Torah Judaism seven; Otzma Yehudit seven; Shas six; and Religious Zionism six. Those 11 party counts add to 120.
In the common reporting breakdown, the five parties aligned with Benjamin Netanyahu total 53 seats, the four parties grouped around Eisenkot and other opponents of Netanyahu total 48, and the two Arab-led lists total 19. These bloc labels are analytical groupings; the certified votes and seats belong to named parties. The Arab-led parties’ combined 19 seats were reported as a record.
The election turnout was reported at 77.9 percent of eligible voters, with 5,716,665 ballots cast. A high turnout and a record for two Arab-led lists help explain the political stakes, but neither fact proves any particular voter’s motivation or determines which parties will cooperate in government.
A 61-seat majority is the simple absolute-majority benchmark in the 120-seat chamber. No reported bloc has that number on its own, but the next government need not be inferred directly from a three-column seat chart. Parties can negotiate support, abstentions and arrangements across the groupings. The certified result fixes the arithmetic; the political agreements remain to be made.
Sources: Election results for the 26th Knesset — final/unofficial results snapshot · Election chief presents certified results to President Herzog; vote and Shin Bet investigation · Complete vote count gives Netanyahu bloc 53, Eisenkot-aligned parties 48, Arab parties 19, turnout 77.9 percent · CEC results published; Knesset scheduled to be sworn on November 10
The president’s mandate process is a separate step
The presidency’s official explanation of government formation says the president consults the parliamentary factions before assigning a member of the Knesset the task of forming a government. The assignment is to be made within seven days of publication of the official result. The process is not an automatic instruction to the leader of whichever reported bloc has the most seats.
Herzog began consultations on November 4, hours after receiving the certified results from Sohlberg, meeting the smaller factions first; further meetings were scheduled for November 5. Those consultations are discussions about whom factions recommend, not a certification of a governing alliance. A mandate to try to form a cabinet is different again from a cabinet having won the parliamentary support required to take office.
The new Knesset was scheduled to be sworn in on November 10. That date is the opening of a parliamentary term; it is not evidence that coalition bargaining will have concluded by then.
Sources: The institution of the Presidency: government formation timetable · Election chief presents certified results to President Herzog; vote and Shin Bet investigation · CEC results published; Knesset scheduled to be sworn on November 10 · Herzog receives 26th Knesset election results and begins mandate consultations
An ongoing investigation must not be rewritten as a verdict
Herzog’s earlier official statement said he had spoken with Sohlberg and Shin Bet chief David Zini about allegations and expected evidence to be investigated. He also warned against tarnishing an entire community. The central committee’s later audit found no vote-changing problem. Those are different public records: an institutional warning, an administrative audit and an ongoing security inquiry.
The public accounts on November 4 left the security-service investigation unfinished. Claims about outside financing, infiltration or voting irregularities therefore need attribution to the people or agencies making them. The committee’s certification does not decide a criminal case; the continuation of an investigation does not invalidate a certified election by itself.
The narrower, verifiable result is that the election authority approved the results on November 4 despite unresolved allegations. What investigators ultimately establish, if anything, is a later question and should be reported only when evidence or formal decisions become public.
Sources: President Herzog statement on election integrity and ongoing investigation · Election panel reports audit of 9,069 polling station protocols and no outcome-changing findings · Election chief presents certified results to President Herzog; vote and Shin Bet investigation
What the certification changes — and what it does not
Before certification, the dispute had focused in part on whether the results should be delayed while suspicions were checked. After the committee’s 15–2–14 decision and the presentation to Herzog, the immediate institutional question became who could assemble sufficient parliamentary support from the 120 elected seats.
The outcome also makes the 19 seats held by the Joint List and Ra’am relevant to discussions of majority and minority support. Relevance is not the same as a commitment: their votes should not be added to either competing bloc as a guaranteed coalition contribution without a public agreement or an actual parliamentary vote.
The next verifiable milestones are the president’s consultations, a formal mandate to attempt government formation, the November 10 swearing-in and any substantiated findings from the separate investigation. For now, the result is certified and the government-formation process remains open.
Sources: The institution of the Presidency: government formation timetable · Election panel reports audit of 9,069 polling station protocols and no outcome-changing findings · Election chief presents certified results to President Herzog; vote and Shin Bet investigation · Complete vote count gives Netanyahu bloc 53, Eisenkot-aligned parties 48, Arab parties 19, turnout 77.9 percent · CEC results published; Knesset scheduled to be sworn on November 10 · Herzog receives 26th Knesset election results and begins mandate consultations · The CEC plenary vote: 15 in favour, 2 against, 14 abstentions
