Almost 45 percent of Israeli voters had cast a ballot by mid-afternoon on Tuesday, according to the Central Elections Committee. That is the highest turnout recorded by 2pm (12:00 GMT) in 50 years, and it is 6 percent higher than at the same point in the last elections, held in 2022.
The vote is widely viewed as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks and the wars that followed. Those conflicts have been the most intense period of combat for Israel since the 1973 surprise military campaign by Egypt and Syria.
Long queues and bad weather on polling day
Israeli officials said several polling stations faced exceptionally long lines. They attributed the queues to high turnout, even though rain and strong winds hit parts of the country and a flood warning was issued for some areas.
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Mitchell Barak, a pollster and former aide to Netanyahu, said turnout “is really high and that’s good”. He suggested it could surpass the historic peak of 1973, when Israel was also engaged in a major war. Barak also argued that the higher numbers would help the incumbent parties, because the 3.25 percent threshold for entering the Knesset remains in place while the number of votes needed to clear it rises sharply.
Netanyahu urges supporters as Palestinian turnout rises
More than five hours after polls opened, Netanyahu urged supporters to vote. He said turnout was high among his opponents on the left and among Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up about a fifth of the population. “We need it to be high too. You all need to stream to the polls,” he said. “This is a fateful moment.”
Before the vote, Netanyahu had repeatedly warned supporters about the prospect of high turnout among Palestinian citizens, seeking to mobilise his base under the slogan “the right or Palestine”. Palestinian candidate Ahmed Tibi said those voters were casting ballots in “unprecedented” numbers.
Netanyahu and his main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, have both ruled out partnering with Arab parties, citing a lack of shared values. Some possible scenarios, however, envision them propping up a minority government to remove Netanyahu from office.
Rights group complaint over voting delays
An Israeli rights group has filed a complaint with the election commission warning that widespread delays could be suppressing the vote among Israeli Palestinians. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) acknowledged that the delays could be a result of high turnout. Its complaint to the Central Elections Committee said delays had been reported in at least 18 communities, and it asked the committee to investigate “whether these delays are deliberate.”
The ACRI also reported a “large presence” of police and National Guard officers at a polling station in the Negev Desert. It raised concerns that officers could be using crowd control as a pretext to stop people from entering to vote.
