Israel elections: Herzog concedes to Netanyahu after Likud takes most seats

• Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party has scored a dramatic election victory surging past its main rival, the centre-left Zionist Union, to win most seats in the Knesset. Exit polls had suggested the Zionist Union and its leader, Isaac Herzog, were neck and neck with Netanyahu, but by Wednesday morning official results had stretched to a decisive six-seat lead for Likud.
• Likud said it it expects to form a government over the next two to three weeks. It has spoken to parties likely to be part of the new ruling coalition, including Kulana, the centrist party of former finance minister Moshe Kahlon, and a series of smaller right wing parties.
• The opposition Zionist Union, which secured 24 seats, has conceded defeat. Its leader Isaac Herzog said the party would continue to be an alternative to Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud.
• There has been muted international response to Likud’s victory. Iran said it expects business as usual under Netanyahu’s next government. One of Europe’s most senior diplomats, Sweden’s Carl Bildt, said the result risked a “profound crisis on the Palestinian issue”.
• Netanyahu declared a “great victory” after exit polls had earlier predicted that the result would be tie. He also struck a conciliatory note in a late-night speech, promising to protect the interests of Israelis “Jewish and non-Jewish” and touching on social reform.
• Voter turnout surpassed 2013 levels before polls closed, with 71.8% of Israel’s 5.8 million eligible citizens having voted, the most since 1999. An estimated 67-68% of Israeli-Arabs voted, up from 54% in 2013.