was overshadowed by violence and the country’s lowest turnout ever.
Israeli television stations claimed Olmert’s Kadima Party would receive up to 32 seats in the 120-member parliament, slightly lower than previous opinion polls suggested. Left-leaning Labor came in second with 20-22 seats and the rightist Likud third with roughly a dozen seats, the exit polls showed.
Turnout was 63.2 percent, the lowest ever, officials said, adding that this could benefit smaller ideological parties.
Analysts suggested that the outcome meant that Olmert would have to create a broad coalition to realize his plan to separate from the Palestinians and establish Israel’s borders by 2010. He has not said which ones he prefers as partners in a center-left coalition.
ROAD MAP
In a reaction, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian Liberation Organization was ready to negotiate immediately the implementation of the US-backed "road map" peace plan with the next Israeli government.
But the militant group Hamas, which last week announced a government without moderates, warned it would resist Olmert’s plan as it would mean "a real liquidation of the Palestinian cause."
Under Olmert’s proposal, Israel’s partially completed West Bank separation barrier, expected to swallow about eight percent of the area, would become the new border within four years, with some alterations.
SETTLEMENT BLOCS
Settlement blocs on the "Israeli" side of the barrier would be beefed up, while tens of thousands of settlers living on the other side would be uprooted. Olmert believes it would boost security and decrease attacks against Israel where earlier Tuesday, March 28, two people were killed in an apparent rocket attack.
Israeli military officials said the explosion was caused either by a Palestinian rocket attack or stray ordnance along the border area with the Gaza Strip.
Medical officials said an adult and child, apparently Arab shepherds whose identity were not immediately revealed, were killed in the blast, which occurred near the agricultural community of Nahal Oz close to the border with the Gaza Strip.
In Gaza, Islamic Jihad said it had timed the attack to disrupt the Israeli election.
MORE ROCKETS FIRED
Four other rockets were fired into Israel Tuesday, March 28, including at least one longer-range Russian-made Katyusha rocket launched from Gaza, causing no injuries, the military said. Israeli officials told reporters the trend was "worrisome" because Katyusha rockets are potentially more deadly than home-made Kassam rockets because they can reach Israeli cities more easily.
The rockets were fired despite tight security meassures during Election Day, which involved 22,000 police forces patrolling the streets and key areas. In addition The Temple Mount in Jerusalem was briefly closed for Christians and Jews, after police claimed they had indications that Muslim militants planned violence there, news reports said.
Over five million Israelis were eligible to cast ballots in over 8,000 polling stations and final official results were due later Wednesday, March 29. Any new government will have to deal with a complicated political legacy left behind by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who was still in come Tuesday, March 28, after suffering a massive stroke earlier this year. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from Israel).
