President Zalman Shazar wound up his consultations today with the representatives of all political parties elected to the Knesset. He was expected to charge outgoing Premier Golda Meir tomorrow with the task of forming a new Government. Mrs. Meir will have 21 days to present a new Cabinet to the Knesset for approval but may request an additional 21-day extension. All of the factions represented in the outgoing National Unity Government reportedly told Mr. Shazar that they wished Mrs. Meir to continue as Premier.
Final and official results of the Oct. 28 election for the seventh Knesset, announced by the Central Election Committee, confirmed that the Alignment of Premier Golda Meir’s Labor Party and the leftist Mapam had won 56 seats in the 120-seat parliament and that Gahal (Herut-Liberal) Alignment) won 26 seats to maintain its position as Israel’s second largest political grouping. The Labor-Mapam group had an absolute majority of 63 seats in the sixth Knesset and Gahal had 22 seats.
The official tally showed that the National Religious Party increased its seats from 11 to 12, the Agudat Israel retained its four seats and that Poalei Agudat Israel held its two seats. The Arab-Druze pro-Labor lists retained their four seats. The Independent Liberals retained four seats. The Free Center, a breakaway group from Gahal, dropped from four to two seats, and the Israel Communist retained its one seat. Former Premier David Ben-Gurion’s State List, comprised only of Mr. Ben-Gurion in the sixth Knesset, rose to four seats. The one-man Haolam Hazeh faction gained a seat.
The committee reported that 1,758,658 Israelis were eligible to vote and that 1,427,981 had cast ballots, of which 1,367,743 were valid. The Labor-Mapam alignment won 46.2 percent of the vote; Gahal, 21.6 percent; National Religious Party, 9.7 percent; the Arab-Druze lists, 3.5 percent; Agudat Israel, 3.2 percent; Independent Liberals 3.2. percent; the State list, 3.1 percent; New Communists, 2.8 percent; Poalei Agudat, 1.8 percent; Haloam Hazeh, 1.2 percent; Free Center, 1.2 percent; Israel Communists, 1.1 percent; The number of votes needed to capture one seat was given as 11,274. A total of 114 seats were distributed among the lists with the full number of votes needed. The remaining six seats went to the six lists with the largest number of extra votes.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
