Kadima passed the election threshold, Bayit Yehudi went up a seat, and UAL-Ta\’al down one after "double envelope" votes were counted on Thursday, giving the right-wing bloc 61 seats and the center-left 59.
Meanwhile, a Jerusalem Post/Smith Research poll suggested that Yesh Atid\’s surprise jump to 19 seats from a predicted 11 came from the many undecided voters who made decisions in the last days before the election.
The Bayit Yehudi now has 12 seats, and is the fourth-largest party in the Knesset, while UAL-Ta\’al dropped from five to four. Kadima will have two seats in the 19th Knesset
Shuli Muallem, 12th on the Bayit Yehudi, learned that she would become an MK on Thursday morning, and was happy that it was because of soldiers\’ votes.
Muallem, who will need to resign from her post as Chairwoman of the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization when she enters the Knesset, was widowed when her husband Moshe Muallem was killed in the 1997 IAF Helicopters Disaster, in which two Yasur helicopters collided.
"This is very emotional for me. I served in the IDF, and have had a continual connection from age 22, when I married a military man," Muallem explained. "The circle of my life has to do with soldiers, and now in the Knesset, I will be their representative and the representative of their parents, and of anyone fighting for equality in the burden of service."
Muallem expressed satisfaction and excitement that her work over the last few months, in the Bayit Yehudi primary and election campaign, will come to fruition with her serving in the Knesset.
MK Taleb a-Sanaa (UAL-Ta\’al), is fifth on his party\’s list and will no longer be a lawmaker after serving in the Knesset for over 20 years. Newcomer Taleb Abu Arar is in the party\’s fourth slot.
A-Sanaa was not available for comment.
The Central Election Committee finished counting some 200,000 votes of soldiers, prisoners and people in hospitals Thursday morning, painting a nearly-complete picture of what the 19th Knesset will look like.
These ballots are called “double envelope votes,” because many of them are listed in their army base or hospital, as well as in their home town, and it takes longer to count them, because the Central Elections Committee must check to make sure they did not vote twice.
There could still be a minor change by the time the final results are released next Thursday, because of surplus-vote agreements between parties.
Also Thursday, pollster Rafi Smith released findings indicating that 35 percent of Yesh Atid voters made their decision on Election Day, and 18% chose him two to three days before the election.
In other words, over half of Yesh Atid\’s voters chose the party in the three days before the election.
Two-thirds of Likud Beytenu voters made their decision over two months ago, as opposed to 26% of Yesh Atid supporters and 53% of those who chose Bayit Yehudi.
Kadima got a boost on the final days before the election, when 41% of its voters chose the party.
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