At 12:55 Tuesday, 12 Sivan 5774, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein announced the results of the first round of voting for Israel’s tenth president. None of the candidates received the required simply majority, resulting in the need for a second round.

Edelstein announced 119 of the 120 MKs voted, and two of the ballots were disqualified due to the fact there were two slips for the same candidate in the envelopes. There were no empty envelopes and no blank ballots. Therefore 117 votes were counted in round one.

Leading in the race is Reuven Rivlin with 44 votes followed by Meir Sheetrit with 31, Dalia Itzik with 28, Dalia Dorner with 13 and Prof. Dan Shectman with 1.

The second round faceoff between Rivlin and Sheetrit will be held later in the day.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)