Live Blog of Israeli Election Results

21:50 - Thats it for tonight more comment tomorrow

21:45 - Shas are recommending Likud as the main governing party and Netanyahu and Lieberman are speaking on the phone.

21:40 - Is this the end of Barak and Labour. Yes to the first, increasinly likely to the latter. What are we to make of the continual decline of the founding party of Israel.

21:10 - Sky news are suggesting that Kadima, Likud and Labour could form a grand-coaltion. While, others are trying to suggest and workout how Kadima or Likud form their own coalitions, I think the grand-coalition is quite likely.

21:05 - Turnout was 65%. Despite predictions of Israeli's not being interested in the election. This shows what happens when an election is close, turnout goes-up by over 2% from last time.

20:50 - Despite being the second largest party, Likud, including Netanyahu are predicting they will form the Government. That is confident at this stage. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1063118.html

20:45 - The people have spoken but as usual in Israel in recent years the elections have been very close. Therefore in the days and weeks ahead as the parties negotiate to try and form a Government, I urge them to remember that they are working to lead Israel, the Jewish state. They should respect who ever forms the Government and becomes Prime Minister, as a Government should. However, the new Government should also remember their responsibility as leaders of Israel and work to help all citizens.

20:40 - Thunder and heavy rain in Israel. Let's hope it is G-d welcoming a new Prime Minister, but who will it be?

20:35 - Earlier today both Kadima and Likud said the size of their votes would be determined by organisation, organisation, organisation. Given that Kadima's volunteers are paid to help the party, unlike the others, could this be the reason for Kadima winning.

20:30 - The exit polls are a bit of a shock. Polls prior to the election were showing that Likud were expected to be the largest party even if their lead had dramatically declined in the past few weeks. However, Likud's falling lead was argued to be because of Yisrael Beitanu having an increasing number of seats from them. This though does not seem to be the reason for Kadima being in the lead as Yisrael Beitanu have not got as many seats as predicted.

20:20 - Twenty Minutes ago the polls closed in the Israeli election results. The exit polls are showing that out of the 120 seats in the Knesset:

Livni's party Kadima are the largest party with 29 - 30 seats
Netanyahu's party Likud are second with 27 - 28 seats
Leiberman's party Yisrael Beitanu have 14 - 15 seats
Barak's party Labour have 13 seats
Shas 9 - 10 seats

Taking in the minority parties http://muqata.blogspot.com/ is predicting that right wing parties have 63 - 65 seats and the left wing parties 55 -57 seats.