Exit polls indicate that there is no clear winner in Israel's tight parliamentary race that elicited a high voter turnout of 72 percent. Three-term Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party captured 27 percent of the vote, running neck and neck with the center-left Zionist Union Party headed by Isaac Herzog. Netanyahu's reversal on his former support for an independent Palestinian state was widely interpreted as a bid for right-wing support in his race for a fourth term in office. Netanyahu claimed that left-wing NGOs brought in busloads of Arab Israelis to sway the elections against him, but press reports do not back up his charges. A final count is expected early Wednesday morning. teleSUR
