Shas is expected to lose a seat to Likud as Israel's double-envelope ballots are tallied, Amit Segal reported. The right-wing bloc holds a 3-2 edge among the seats allocated so far from that count.
Large swings are unlikely. More votes were cast this time by voters with disabilities, which has diluted the effect of soldiers' ballots.
Bennett and Lapid are running one seat ahead of the Joint List. If a unity government is formed, that lead would make Bennett leader of the opposition and give him the security briefings that come with the post, rather than Yousef Jabareen.
Double-envelope ballots are cast by voters who cannot vote at their assigned polling station, among them IDF soldiers, hospital patients, prisoners, diplomats abroad and voters with mobility disabilities, Arutz Sheva reported. The Central Elections Committee checks that each of these voters has not voted elsewhere. It then separates the inner envelopes from the outer ones and mixes them to keep the vote secret before counting them at a facility in the Knesset parking lot. Counting began at 1 a.m. on Thursday.
On Wednesday evening, the committee estimated that between 430,000 and 480,000 special ballots remained, Matzav reported. Roughly 40,000 votes equal one Knesset seat. Shas officials feared those ballots could leave the party with six seats, since United Torah Judaism led it by about 18,600 votes while both stood at seven.
