Meretz Chairwoman Zehava Galon will be returning as a parliamentarian to the 20th Knesset after all. 

On Thursday morning, after the counting of 200,000 absentee ballots, media reported the left-wing Meretz party will almost definitely receive a fifth mandate. The extra seat came at the expense of the Joint Arab List which has dropped to 13. 

As such, Galon declared she will remain head of the party and will continue to serve as an MK in the Knesset. 

Full elections results will be published by the Central Elections Committee on Thursday afternoon. All ballots have been counted. 

Galon announced Wednesday that due to election results, she would step down as party chair and give up her seat to colleague Tamar Zandberg, fifth on the party’s list. 

According to Wednesday’s results, Meretz just passed the threshold with four mandates – a two-seat drop from 2013 elections, in which the party received six seats. 

Galon took personal responsibility for the drop, writing on Facebook “that if Meretz succeeds, it is everyone’s success, but if Meretz fails to live up to expectations, I am the address for that.”

“That is why I announced, this morning, that I am resigning, and vacating my place in the Knesset so that my colleague Tamar Zandberg can enter in my place. I will not run again for the leadership of Meretz, and will remain chair of Meretz until an orderly transfer of the position, soon.”