With votes from nearly 90 percent of polling stations counted by early this morning, Kadima had won an estimated 29 seats in the 120-member Israeli parliament. Netanyahu's Likud garnered 27.
Ultra-nationalist leader Avigdor Lieberman was projected to place third, with 15 seats. Defense Minister Ehud Barak, head of the center-left Labor Party that once dominated Israeli politics, was forecast to drop to fourth at 13 seats.
Lieberman and Barak, plus the leaders of several smaller parties, could now become kingmakers as Netanyahu and Livni hustle to assemble coalitions.
Roughly speaking, Likud and smaller parties to its right appeared to control about 64 seats, while Kadima and parties to its left held about 47 seats. Parties representing Arabs with Israeli citizenship, which traditionally do not join the government, won about nine seats.
That breakdown suggests Livni would have to recruit at least one party that opposes land-for-peace talks with the Palestinians if she wants to govern.
Itzhak Galnoor, a political scientist with Hebrew University, said the muddled results present an opportunity for a unity government involving all four of the major parties. Livni, he said, was well positioned to lead it. "Because she is in the center, she could form a coalition with parties on the right and parties on the left," he said. "But that's too logical, so it probably won't happen."
