Israelis are heading to the ballots in the unprecedented fifth election since 2019, as the country’s political system has been immobilised for almost four years.
With his Likud party, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc has polled in the strongest fashion, with up to 61 seats in major network polls, The Times of Israel reported on Tuesday. The current caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s bloc has never passed 56 seats in those polls, and he has been unable to articulate how he would form a government if the opinion polls prove true, the report added.
Multiple opinion polls predict an extremely close race between the two legislative blocs, with the possibility of further stalemate.More than 6.7 million eligible voters could cast their votes on 12,495 ballots, according to figures issued by the Central Elections Committee. Some 18,000 police officers have been deployed throughout the country to prevent fraud attempts, manage traffic and maintain security.
A total of 40 parties are running for seats in the Israeli parliament, or Knesset. However, only about 11 of them are projected to pass the electoral threshold needed to enter the parliamentary chamber, which now stands at 3.25 percent of the total votes. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, is not running as an incumbent prime minister. He is planning to return to power with his right-wing Likud party and a far-right and Jewish ultra-Orthodox coalition. Netanyahu had served as prime minister for 12 consecutive years before being ousted in June 2021 by a cross-partisan coalition led by current PM Yair Lapid.
However, recent opinion polls predict that no candidate would gain an outright majority to build a coalition in the Knesset.
The vote will end at 10 p.m. local time, with results from exit polls expected immediately afterward. According to the Central Elections Committee, official final results are expected by Thursday.