NEARLY 56 per cent of eligible voters cast their ballots by 4 pm in the crucial elections on Tuesday, the highest in Israel’s recorded history, as surveys predicted a tight race between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main rival, former army chief Gadi Eisenkot. Polling stations opened across the country at 7 am local time and are scheduled to close at 10 pm, allowing 7,331,981 eligible voters to exercise their franchise at 12,018 polling stations nationwide. According to the Central Elections Committee, 55.7 per cent of voters had cast ballots by 4 PM, up from 47.5 per cent at the same time in the 2022 election. It is the highest turnout ever recorded at this hour. Hourly figures have been measured since 1973. Dean Livne, the acting director general of the Central Elections Committee, said more than 4 million voters have cast their ballots so far.

 

He said large cities with the highest voter turnout are Modiin (60.7 per cent), followed by Tel Aviv (50.5 per cent), Jerusalem (47.7 per cent) and Haifa (46.3 per cent), according to The Times of Israel. “At many polling stations, there are lines. When you reach a high voter turnout, there will always be lines,” Livne said. “We promise, everyone will vote. If there is a line at 10 p.M., the polling stations will continue to operate until everyone who arrived by 10 PM Has voted. There is no need to worry,” he added. According to the military, the voter turnout among Israeli soldiers stood at 68 pc by 5 p.M. In the 2022 election, it was 65 pc at this hour. The soldiers began voting in the national election a week ago, with 850 polling stations deployed at military bases across the country and beyond Israel’s borders.