JERUSALEM — Israelis awoke Wednesday to find that their parliamentary elections had yielded not a new government but political gridlock instead, along with the prospect of weeks of wrangling and deal making before the country’s direction becomes clear.
With 99 percent of the votes counted, the center-left Kadima Party of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni held a one-seat lead over the rightist Likud Party of Benjamin Netanyahu, 28-27 out of 120 seats in parliament. But the total gains of all parties on the right far outweighed those of the left, leading Netanyahu and his supporters to demand that he be given first crack at forming the next government.
The remaining 1 percent of votes to be counted — those of soldiers and state employees serving abroad — were expected to be tallied by today and could tip the balance.
Either way, the country’s president, Shimon Peres, was to consult with all parliamentary factions in the coming days before assigning either Netanyahu or Livni the task of putting together a coalition with more than 60 seats. That will probably happen next week.
But already, of course, the jockeying had begun, with both party leaders sounding out other parties about coalition prospects.
