( CNN ) -- The final election results are in for the 19th Knesset in Israel , and the only thing that 's clear is Israeli voters are pretty evenly divided across the political spectrum . The newspaper Haaretz and the independent U.S.-based Israel Project each projected the seats won based on the vote totals , and they agreed that right wing and center-right parties are likely to end up with 61 of the legislative seats , while left wing and center-left parties , including Arab parties , will probably garner 59 seats . While the totals are `` final , '' now that votes from soldiers , diplomats , prisoners and others have been tallied , they wo n't be `` official '' until January 30 . The results came as a surprise to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud-Beitenu party . Netanyahu 's supporters had 42 seats in the outgoing Knesset , but he is projected to retain only 31 in the new legislature . The prime minister indicated Wednesday that he might try to attract centrists into a government coalition rather than form a hard-right bloc in Israel 's politically diverse parliament . He announced a focus on three issues dear to the upstart center-left Yesh Atid party , which is projected to capture 19 Knesset seats : increasing equality in the burden on the public , seen as a reference to the practice , unpopular among secularists , of giving military exemptions to the ultra-Orthodox ; the grinding issue of affordable housing ; and changing what many see as Israel 's `` ineffective '' system of government . CNN 's Joe Sterling contributed to this report .
Israel 's election results are final , but not yet official . Experts believe the new Knesset will be equally divided between left- and right - wing parties . Prime Minister Netanyahu 's center - right party has clout ; a centrist coalition will emerge .