The Central Election Committee today announced the official distribution of Knesset seats to the various parties which received one percent or more of the total number of votes cast in last month’s general elections. Under the law the new Parliament must be convened within ten days after the official results are announced.
Leading the list was Ben Gurion’s Mapai Party with 45 seats in the Parliament, representing a loss of one seat; second was the General Zionist Party which has 20 deputies in the Knesset, a gain of 13; while third was the left-wing Socialist Mapam, which dropped five seats to a new total of 15. The final official tabulation of votes gives Mapai 37.3 percent of the total, General Zionists 16.1 percent and Mapam 12.5 percent.
The Poale Mizrachi, which previously had six deputies, will now have eight, while the Herut dropped six seats to eight. The Mizrachi dropped from four to two; the Agudas Israel lost one and now has three; the Poale Agudah kept its two seats; the Communists gained two to bring the total to five; the Progressives, who lost one, will have four deputies in the next Parliament; the Sephardim lost two and remain with two; and the Yemenites kept their single seat.
Three Arab parties, different from the one which was represented in the last Knesset, received a total of five of the 120 seats. They are: Nazareth Arabs, three; Democratic Arabs, one; and the Arab List, one.
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