1996 Israeli Election
First direct PM vote29 May 1996 · The direct-election experiment · 120 seats, 61 for a majority
The elections for prime minister resulted in a surprise victory for Benjamin Netanyahu, by a margin of 29,457 votes, less than 1% of the total number of votes cast, and much smaller than the number of spoiled votes. This came after the initial exit polls had predicted a Shimon Peres win, spawning the phrase "went to sleep with Peres, woke up with Netanyahu".
Prime Minister before
Shimon Peres
Labor Party
Prime Minister after
Benjamin Netanyahu
Likud
Largest force
Labor Party
34 of 120 seats
Turnout
—
The result
| Share of the Knesset | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labor Party | — | 34 | -10 | 818,741 | 26.8% | — | |
| Likud–Gesher–Tzomet | — | 32 | -8 | 767,401 | 25.1% | — | |
| Shas | — | 10 | +4 | 259,796 | 8.5% | — | |
| National Religious Party | — | 9 | +3 | 240,271 | 7.9% | — | |
| Meretz | — | 9 | -3 | 226,275 | 7.4% | — | |
| Yisrael BaAliyah | — | 7 | — | 174,994 | 5.7% | — | |
| Hadash–Balad | — | 5 | +2 | 129,455 | 4.2% | — | |
| United Torah Judaism | — | 4 | 0 | 98,657 | 3.2% | — |
10 further seats went to parties and independents outside the main contenders listed above.