With all of the ballots counted, including those of the military and diplomatic missions abroad, there are a number of changes regarding the outcome of the elections for 20th Knesset.

Likud, which was moving back and forth between 29 and 30 seats does indeed have 30 seats. Meretz, which had four seats earned an additional seat and now has five. The Arab bloc, which had 14 seats lost one and now has 13. Yahadut Hatorah, which had 7 seats, lost a seat and now has six, leaving MK Yaakov Asher outside of the 20th Knesset.

Some interesting points;

· Shas only had six seats. While it was very close to a seventh seat it fell short. Due to the surplus votes agreement it signed with Yahadut Hatorah it earned the seventh seat.

· The high voter turnout for this election, over 73%, resulted in each party requiring more votes per seat since the minimum threshold is not an absolute number, but a percentage of the voting. Had the voter turnout been the same as the last elections, Asher would have been in Knesset. The high voter turnout worked against the chareidi parties.

· Shas received 240,907 votes.

· Yahadut Hatorah received 211,603 votes, which represents 15,000 more votes than in the elections for 19th Knesset.

It should be pointed out that the final number will not be released by the Central Election Committee on Thursday night, 28 Adar. While no additional changed are expected, it is still a possibility.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)