Sharon Calls for Broad-Based Unity Government.

By VOA News

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has called for the formation of a national unity government after his Likud Party won Tuesday's general elections. Sharon asked all parties to join him in forming as broad a government as possible. But the Labor Party, which had its worst election

Labor Party leader Amran Mitzna conceded defeat shortly after Israel's three main television stations predicted Sharon's right-wing Likud Party would win 32 to 36 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Polls projected Labor winning 17 to 19 seats.

Analysts have been predicting this kind of outcome. They said two years of Israeli-Palestinian violence has left many Israelis disillusioned about prospects for peace and that increased support for Sharon's tough policies against the Palestinians. Analysts also said that Israelis were not likely to vote against the experienced incumbent in favor of the Labor Party's relatively inexperienced Amram Mitzna, the mayor of the city of Haifa, who called for immediate resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians.

Exit polls indicated the third place finisher would be the secular Shinui Party. The party is projected to more than double its current six parliamentary seats to finish with 14 to 17 seats.

Twenty-seven political parties competed in the parliamentary elections. Yael Dayan, who filled the Meretz party's 12th slot, said in reaction to the exit poll results: "There will not remain any representative of the homosexual community in the Knesset. This is something terrible for the people of Israel."

The ultra-orthodox religious party Shas lost ground, projected to receive between nine and 13 seats, down from the 17 seats it held in the last parliament.

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Sharon's victory means the peace process will be further suspended and violence would escalate.

Tight security prevailed in Israel during the elections. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip remain under a travel ban. Tuesday's vote was plagued by one of the lowest turnouts in Israel's history, with little more than 60 percent of the country's nearly five million eligible voters having gone to the polls two hours before they closed.

Meanwhile, violence in the occupied territories claimed seven Palestinian lives Tuesday. Israeli troops shot four Palestinians in the West Bank town of Jenin, and three others were killed in an explosion that ripped through the house of a militant near Gaza City. Palestinians say an Israeli missile fired from a helicopter gunship caused the blast. But the Israeli military denied involvement.