Exit polls released on Tuesday night showed that the centrist Kadima party led by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni won the most votes in Israel's general election.

Israeli Foreign Minister and leader of the Kadima party Tzipi Livni casts her vote at a polling station in Tel Aviv, Feb. 10, 2009. Israel started a day-long general election on Tuesday morning to choose its next parliament and premiership. [Xinhua Photo]

According to the percentage of votes each party garnered in the 15-hour-long election, Kadima won 30 seats in the 120-member parliament, while its main rival, the right-wing Likud party, got 28, showed a survey by Israeli TV Channel 10.

The poll also found that the ultranationalist Israel Beiteinu party and the center-left Labor party respectively gained 15 and 13 seats, and the ultra-Orthodox Shas party gathered 9 seats.

Another survey conducted by Channel 2 also put Kadima in the first place with 29 seats, Likud the second with 27, followed by Israel Beiteinu, Labor and Shas respectively with 15, 13 and 10 seats.

In the same order, the Channel 1 polls put the figures at 30, 28, 14, 13 and 9.

Final results are expected before dawn Wednesday, and Israel's Central Elections Committee is scheduled to publish the official results on Feb. 18.

Israel President Shimon Peres receives interviews after casting his vote at a polling station in Jerusalem, Feb. 10, 2009. Israel started a day-long general election on Tuesday morning to choose its next parliament and premiership. [Xinhua Photo]

The exit polls overturned the findings of most of earlier opinion polls that indicated the Likud enjoyed a small edge in the run-up to a neck-and-neck race between the two front-runners.

Should Kadima's victory be proved, Livni would very likely receive once again a presidential mandate to form a new government, as the president traditionally assigns the task to the leader of the biggest party in the parliament.

Yet in light of the fragmentariness of Israel's political realm, the cabinet-making mission is doomed to be arduous, as any prime minister-designate has to cobble together a coalition through heavy bargaining.

Shortly before the election ended, Livni said that she is willing to set up a coalition with Likud and Labor. It remains unknown how former prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, chiefs of the two parties, would react.

Should Livni succeed in forming the government, she would become the second woman premier in Israel's history.

In September, Livni failed to establish a cabinet to replace the caretaker one led by outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, bringing forth the general election a year ahead of its original schedule.

Until the new government is formed, Olmert, who was forced to resign amid a corruption scandal, will remain in office.

(Xinhua News Agency February 11, 2009)