israelis votes in a historic poll which will decide whether benjamin netanyahu returns for a fifth term in office. and i mean this is al jazeera life from london also coming up. in algeria after a member of the former presidents in this call is appointed interim leader. and sit on seven protests as they killed in major demonstrations calling for president alba she had to resign. and the u.k. prime minister seeks a european support for her plan to delay breaks it's

a once again. so we begin in israel where exit poll results from the general election are set to be released voters have been cutting their ballots to determine if prime minister benjamin netanyahu will remain in office for a fifth term his main challenger benny gantz the country to embrace a new dawn when he voted in tel aviv previous opinion polls have showed a tight race between guns his centrist new and white party and netanyahu the right wing likud party. let's go now to hurry for cities lie for us from ben netanyahu could party headquarters in tel aviv and harry expecting exit polls anytime no. that's right you know we're getting some initial reports of the exit polls but we're not yet confident enough to to declare them but it does seem that

it is very close and the closer it is the better news that is for benjamin netanyahu he has been. really frenetically going out around the country on his social media throughout the day trying to warn his likud supporters that there is a real danger of his right wing government being overtaken of fulling to the efforts of blue and white and benny gantz saying that it is a major. crisis in terms of complacency among the could voters and so he's been on beaches telling people to get out of the water and go to the go to the to the polling stations instead and we have actually just had confirmation of the first exit polls coming from israeli channel twelve news could on thirty three seats in one hundred twenty c. knesset and benny gantz is blue and white party on thirty seven so that puts him four seats ahead of the channel twelve as well so to two television stations here

in israel and now reporting that that will put him four seats ahead it then becomes a question for the israeli president. rivlin as to who he believes has the easier path towards a coalition obviously benjamin netanyahu has a real advantage not in terms of his right wing support. thanks very much indeed we will come back to that. it was also the exit polls in israel as we go on but we are going to algeria to algiers where. speaker. who's acting head of state is addressing the nation. with my duty under the constitution and. tendin and willin to exert every effort to faithfully and firmly fulfill his task to serve our people the great people and their.

legitimate aspirations here in the last few weeks. that where day is anywhere touch the. you can read three and the cohesion of the society at large has been confirmed which open to new horizon democratic corazon. which supports our national project. based on the statements of november and that we all. have to consolidate the gains we gained from this country through the past weeks our people. have admirably. except pressed themselves and showed that aspiration for change and for reform and

to actually participate in taken relevant decisions to their future. in this. context in this historic move it is my national deity to. greet all the social groups who peacefully but dissipated. participated responsibly. in this political arena. since the twenty second of every february the past and also. pay tribute to the people. and particularly the young men and women of our people who showed admirably the whole world the bright. side of this one and promising side of algeria and the

jury and. showed confidence and self a confidence vote that shows hope. change in you witnessed. through the last. weeks. what our. public institutions have embarked upon by. exerting their tasks calmly and. if it efficiently. to deal wisely with and responsibly with the current. political impasse in a way that serves the higher. interests of the country in all the men and women of the country i would like to particularly thank all

the security services. by exert their efforts to execute the duties at the highest a stand that i also pay tribute to our. national army that exerted no effort it. will uphold the constitution and the leadership. that insisted on following the constitution and adhering to the constitution as their point of reference in order to achieve their suppression of our people who pass the current crisis dear men and women of our. people our great people. today are embarking upon a story. a new route of history and whilst they do in

this day you know not to forget the men and women who shared their lives in order to gain its. freedom. also we also do not forget those who did every effort before they could unity and it's. also quick to pay tribute to our people. and to thank them. greatly and thank greatly those. who he was in. i did their best. in order to make it possible for the men and women of geria to reconciliate among themselves and to co-exist together peacefully. and

to work together to rebuild a new modern country amongst. its other nations and men and women of our country or countries are going in a mark in a pond and new route that is decisive in our. history where we want to. brink the. new president in a democratic way within ninety days in accordance with the constitution what it is clear. as you know. that the appointed. president interim president cannot stand before the election for the presidency of the country and therefore i would. in fact confirm

emphatically that. my only role is to assume the task i am empowered with and. in doing so yeah yes i wish to go to do it within the. context of the section seven and eight of the constitution which under which we have. yes. to adhere to this point as people and institutions and in order to embark upon. transparent and impartial elections presidential elections that would. allow people to. exert enjoy it's

a sovereign entity i intend. in consultation with the civilian and civil and political. institutions. to make. a national unity that is able to issue decisions in the respect of carrying out the actions that are transparent and. proper also the government will. instruct its. departments to. supervise this elections. honestly and. in a fair and impartial fashion. i would urge everybody to overcome

their differences and to. embark upon. a national. national work together in order to cooperate and exert every effort to reach the ultimate. goal which to lead the cornerstone for jiri or for the common steps. i would. say at this moment we need to. make the legal provision for this step. as soon as possible and i also would request from our political. establishment a national establishment to. participate confidently

and to work together in order to build this legal framework which will pave the way for. building a political new political comprehensive system that would be the standard that everyone wishes dear ladies and gentlemen of our nation. the peoples embarking on establishing a new. system. what they're able us to. appoint a new president in accordance with the constitution and the selection will be free. as much as the situation allows. and within the confidence and trust amongst us it is important for our people.

us to choose the person and the program here that would. agree here and conform with aspirations. politically. in order to meet the new challenges that. face in the way that would. allow them to embark on. building a new system and i hope that what would it would choose a new president. who would start with his program to open a new stage for the new on geria it is my hope also that

women and men of our nation have to participate together. in a way that would. be a way of commitment and moving forward i hope that. everybody would commit. to this new national project. and to lay down the foundation of it. in the service of our nation and people and our martyrs i would. call upon you today. and i have no doubt. that. there is a hard level of awareness that has been shown by everybody those retroactive people who are. caring and keen for the.

prosperity of their country will not spare any effort to participate in order to overcome this. stage i also. hope from everybody to stand together in the same way as we have stored together and that has been shown. to help the country to face the challenges particularly those that are to do with the security and also to deal with the political and financial reforms that. are establishments are. facing and. may god help us. to do the best

for our nation and may peace and god's a blessing be upon you. glory. eternity. that was. acting head of state for the next ninety days replacing a beautifully who has resigned he was calling on the people trying to quell the growing unrest in algeria of course saying that we are embarking on a new routes of history paying tribute to our people he said calling on the people to work together. on transparent and impartial elections and nudging everybody to overcome differences and well together to reach the ultimate goal to lay the cornerstone for a future. whether or not that will be enough to satisfy the millions of protesters who've been out in the street save a recent weeks remains to be seen so that was a book on the acting head of state of algeria challenging the way forward.

all right let's take you back to israeli there is writing elections and we can see some pictures now of actually both sides celebrating it's unclear what the exit polls are demonstrating his point on that race is apparently too close to call in facts and no much debris to go on that people just still waiting for some clarity of course the challenge of benjamin netanyahu fifty nine year old benny gantz the man he wants to netanyahu as chief of staff is ready defense forces netanyahu leads the right wing that could party against as leader of the blue and white party at the chinle follow a preliminary exit poll shows that prime minister benjamin netanyahu his likud party has thirty three seats and many counts as blue and white coalition party at this point in time thirty seven seats and remember the closer it is the better it is for the incumbent netanyahu let's join forces to use life from his new could

party headquarters in tel aviv in a furnace in what's happening. well yes i'll have to do that through the prism of that lack of clarity that you were just talking about there is a real divergence in the exit polls which themselves have been found to be. to have been getting thing have got things are pretty badly wrong in previous elections so all of this has to come with really major caveats but yes in that one exit poll we have thirty seven seats and a hundred twenty c. knesset israeli parliament for benny gantz thirty three his party thirty three for netanyahu is the good others have it much closer one major channel has their results at thirty six thirty six a dead heat another thirty six to netanyahu is likud party thirty seven to benny gantz his party so really what will be decisive is going to be which of those the

presidents of the country really rivlin feels has the easiest and most cases path towards a ruling coalition and all of the indications have been that benjamin netanyahu would have that advantage as he has in the past because of his very close relationship is carefully manager lation ship with the smaller right wing parties however he and rivlin despite being from the same party despite being from the same political historical background are no friends and so he is concerned that rivlin might given the opportunity if blue and white does if is found to have won this election that he might decide to allow benny gantz and his his team of former generals to try to make a coalition so he's been calling on his voters all day in panic stricken language saying there is complacency and you know voting there are not enough of the could support is coming to the polls and so he's been drawing people in trying to make it

could the biggest party the questioners have had in doing so has he taken the wind out of the sails of some of the. smaller right wing parties that have been so vital to his coalition building in the past and the early indications are that at least two of those possible natural coalition partners may well have for fallen below the threshold and may not be in the israeli knesset at all so we are in a situation where it's a real wait and see moment but certainly it's not a great night for benjamin netanyahu we don't yet know whether it's good enough for him to maintain his time in office and harry the issue of the smaller parties going to be a very important factor as you say and turnout is critical in that sense given how much support they end up getting. it is critical and that is another caveat that i should have included just now these exit polls they are based on the status quo at eight pm local time in israel that is to more than two hours ago now

and with all of these parties giving out these messages of panic not just netanyahu but across the board everyone has been saying that that there isn't enough of a turnout come to the polls and rescue off fortunes that could have been a real impact of that in the in the last two hours so we wait to see exactly what has happened in terms of the numbers coming in the very last moments of this election at eight o'clock it was standing at around sixty one percent it was still a little bit over a percentage point down on the same time in the last elections in twenty fifteen the other really interesting story has been what appeared to be at least earlier in the day a real falling off in the palestinian israeli vote last election it was well over fifty percent this time posters were talking about historic low turnout in those areas at the same time as benjamin netanyahu was sending likud activists to palestinian areas and the polling booths there wearing hidden cameras that was

ruled illegal by the election committee it was criticized as a tented intimidation and even vote suppression by the palestinian party. yes they spent most of the off to do in desperately calling on people to to come out and ensure that there is a kind of shoes really representation in the knesset in twenty nineteen and going forward the far left the rich party is ready party was also coming to those areas and calling on people to come out so that is one of the many open questions that are still to be resolved so it may take a good more a good a good few more hours before we know exactly what did the projected results are that's a picture of likud party headquarters for the thanks very much for the time being but with you shortly let's cross tel aviv. and who's the headquarters of pentagon says blue white polity what i want to censor. but certainly with the first exit polls came out on the screen just behind me at

this hour but who are out of the supporters who are in the lead while they were actually sounding here comes the new prime minister now as how he said nothing is said to the still yet that one has to wait for more details of the final results yet betty gad's has just a few moments ago a clear victory. and he said that the president briefly now has seen the full picture and he must basically that if that leadership of that country would just be appointed to put what listen to him and what they think is a lot of that liberation here behind me i think that simple earlier today i spoke to many people who had given their ballots today that wireless that they said that they were doing it all put it hoping that you know as benjamin did you know even that is not set in stone yet but they also say that when push the big hurdle is the

idea that they would you think will win this election would become the prime minister and many reluctant. i said at the time that they thought that the the prime minister would remain. in the tent now and now we have to wait to see the final exit poll do you fish the numbers because as harry said this is a bit of a maze you have a neck and neck situation but you have also the exit polls that give a little margin and head to the seven to ten i get there i don't want this to the party back i would say so we'll have to see what would happen with those final numbers certainly i think that the supporters of the and watching this are being in a position of strength tonight one they were hoping for to throughout the day and throughout this hour three months but many were quite skeptical and probably say this is a surprise that they bury their dead this cold air earlier during the campaign of

you know they've been more than eighty opinion polls throughout this electoral campaign at the beginning many was showing their benny gantz and his co-chair of the bill why this year left seat as the favorite and then over the past two weeks things have changed some exit some opinion polls that have actually showed today and of that it's been lovely who is the firm winner here but i think also they would be quite happy to hear about the fact that some of these a couple of the far right parties had not made that threshold making it slightly more difficult for benjamin netanyahu to form a coalition and on the other hand there was a lot of talk that maybe a lot of the left party supporters like this very cardio labor would give their vote to the new and white list simply as a strategic goal simply and have been to try to end this ten year rule but having

to tell you know over this country well they fared better their people told their ad that it was better. one of the many we're hearing that it might fall below that threshold where it is above the national so that is certainly something that goes in the strength of the cab of the red white. ribbon hota given that it's very close to the exit polls are showing these contradictory results what would it be that benny gantz would need. to actually win the right. one to win out right believe the job to form a coalition but to get to the point where he could form a coalition that would give him the the presidency. well he already has a very strong parliamentarian blog inside that there said we don't know yet it seems that it's going to be a good thing his father been very wrong now he needs to do what ever what happens

after every election in this country is a lot of political bargaining to bring onboard as many parties that possible to form this politician and bring about this sixty one seat that would allow him to day become the prime minister now i love the israelis over the past few days at the end up to date with boils down to the president really. he will get the chance to first certainly with this result to benny gantz here let me have a very big challenge and as kerry said earlier. benjamin netanyahu doesn't have such a good relation with the israeli president he's going to listen to both and then he is didn't decide who he will get there but you need to form a coalition first and that person would have about twenty eight days that could be extended by another fifteen to try to bring about that but is it better to wait

israeli politics are around and i've always wondered if this is this is a very difficult time and many people would tend to do. we wanted to do we if it doesn't start to mimic the exit polls are out and that's when you have to listen to statements from older political leaders all over again because many would tend to that what was said before the election could change just minutes after the exit polls are out. so any fall from a back with us is things progress is the night goes on let's bring in our senior political analyst. joins us live from doha. interesting developments in israel how do you assess what's going on so far. well if this was our of for and on prime minister netanyahu it certainly did not bode very well for the incumbent prime minister after ten years you can you know you can have your own guess are the

israelis bored with him after ten years do they really suspect him of being a corrupt politician do they disagree with his peace process abandonment do they think he's to have the fox in washington and moscow is not enough and they really need fresh blood someone new more stable and so on so forth it remains to be seen but clearly the numbers thus far is that in terms of party numbers blue white certainly above the likud it was a bit according to expectations but everyone thought after those two last weeks of statements shift that maybe netanyahu will pull forward well he did not now it's a question of who can form the coalition as we heard from. but to be honest with you already if the religious parties. and shas are already pulling twelve to thirteen votes they have already said they will not not join blue white

coalition because of its secular tendencies and its rejection of all sorts of combinations that the religious parties insist on it remains to be seen whether know which is more sort of the center for more likud and. make it and whether the labor party is as bad as it seems which is eight apparently according to the early exit polls so we don't know yet if the smaller rights the right this parties have pulled through because from the very very first. exit polls it seems who would or identity did not make it. and it seems that the new right has made very very modest progress so we really don't know how it's going to look like in terms of what coalition and if i may i think this secret or the

surprise if you will that that might surprise everyone including israelis is the possibility of a national unity government between likud and blue and white list between benny gantz and netanya o. that ensures if not the neo does get indicted and cannot serve as prime minister that certainly in the first parts of whatever the national unity government arrangement is that bennett guns will be the prime minister so i think national unity government now for me judging from the from the exit polls is a real possibility between late cooed and blue and white lists ok tell us is that more mo a the role of the smaller parties and why that's critical and what's transpired is here and how voter turnout especially among arab israelis has relevance well in terms of out of israelis it's really very difficult to judge now

what happened because palestinians in israel apparently went in massive way bit in the last two hours before before the ballots closed so we don't know exactly the final i've seen channel twelve say that one party or one coalition will get six of the other coalition would get six and the last election two thousand and fifteen together they got thirteen if they got six and six or six on five it means they've got one or two seats less but again this is all provisional but in terms of the right wing parties the fact that a number of the maybe a dozen of them did not make it it means that that blue and white list would probably get more seats in the parliament as we've seen maybe thirty six thirty seven surpassingly cooed now in terms of correlation building.