Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's ruling Kadima party retained a one-seat lead over Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud in the final results of Israel's general election, Israel Radio reported on Thursday.
The end count did nothing to change the confusing political picture that emerged on Tuesday night, however, or resolve a potentially paralysing dispute between the two main parties over who should rightfully head the next government.
Former premier Netanyahu is unlikely to drop the claim he has made since Tuesday's vote that he, not Ms Livni, should be given the first chance to form a coalition government, because parliament has a broad right-wing majority that would back him.
More than 150,000 ballots from military bases, prisons and Israeli diplomatic missions still had to be counted after the bulk of civilian votes in Tuesday's national poll delivered Ms Livni's slim majority over Mr Netanyahu's Likud.
In the end, the Israel Elections Committee confirmed that Ms Livni's Kadima party took 28 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, while Likud secured 27 seats, dashing Mr Netanyahu's hopes that the final count could swing the result his way.
But the lineup of smaller parties was also largely unchanged, and here the numbers were in his favour.
Avigdor Lieberman's far-right Yisrael Beiteinu (Our Home is Israel) won 15 seats, and the ultra-Orthodox Shas party has 11 seats, while left-wing Labour took just 13. Mr Netanyahu says this gives him a better chance of forming a coalition than Ms Livni.
Attention is now on President Shimon Peres, who has nearly two weeks to decide which parliamentarian to ask to form a government. By tradition, it has been the leader of the biggest party in parliament. But the results showed parties to the right of Kadima have 65 seats compared to 55 for Kadima and the left.
Reuters