No clear mandate projected in Israel election: What’s next?

Exit polls from Israel’s legislative elections have come in, with no party or bloc projected to secure a clear mandate to form a new government. The polls, released by the major Israeli television networks on Tuesday, indicated that the coalition led by current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party was on track to win 50 seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament, the Knesset. The opposition bloc led by former Israeli military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party was projected to take 52 seats. That could leave neither bloc with the 61 seats needed for a majority, setting the stage for weeks or months of political jockeying to form Israel’s next government.