Israel’s president accepts certified election results ahead of talks on forming of new government

Israeli President Isaac Herzog accepted on Wednesday the certified results from last week’s vote, and said he would begin consultations with party representatives regarding the formation of a new government.

Neither the party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor that of his main challenger, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, secured an outright majority in parliament. The two sides are now in hard-fought negotiations to convince smaller parties to join forces to create a new government.

Earlier in the day, Israel’s election commission said it found no fraud in last week’s vote, dealing a blow to Netanyahu’s attempts to discredit the results. Netanyahu and his supporters have repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims that Arab-led parties had “stolen” the election, possibly with foreign assistance.

The results showed Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist bloc losing its parliamentary majority, while Arab-led parties made substantial gains.

“The review found no evidence of irregularities that compromised the integrity of the election or affected its results,” the committee said in a statement.

The acting director of the elections committee, Dean Livne, said its investigation examined every complaint “individually and thoroughly,” but found no evidence to support allegations that the election results were invalid.

The results, which are set to be formally…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/world