Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and other factions of the outgoing coalition are seeking to delay the publication of the official election results, citing two ongoing investigations into suspected election irregularities.

The chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Noam Sohlberg, insisted that the committee is not empowered to delay the publication, which under Basic Law: The Knesset must occur eight days after the election. Netanyahu’s coalition of ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties lost its Knesset majority, winning a combined 53 seats; Likud was again the largest party, with 27. The other 67 seats are split between Jewish-led parties (48) and Arab-led parties (19). Once the result is published, Herzog will have seven days to assign the task of trying to form a new government.