Israelis are voting in a closely watched election to decide on the direction of the country, three years after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel that set off the genocidal war on Gaza.
The first election since those attacks comes at a time when Israel’s pogroms in the occupied West Bank have escalated, and amid mounting tensions with several of its neighbours, many of whom it has attacked in the past three years.
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But the vote also comes amid growing domestic questions that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces over alleged failures that allowed the October 7 attack, his government’s handling of efforts to retrieve captives taken to Gaza, alleged corruption and disputes over ultra-Orthodox military service.
In final polls published Friday, Netanyahu’s coalition is expected to be neck and neck with – or trail slightly behind – the opposition bloc led by former Israeli military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot.
According to Israeli news outlet Haaretz, which has collated polls from Israeli news channels, as of Friday, an average of Channels 11, 12 and 13 predicts Netanyahu’s bloc will win 50 seats while Eisenkot’s opposition bloc will take 54 seats. The Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset, has 120 seats in all, so 61 is the mark that a grouping needs to reach a majority.
Here’s what you need to know about the election.
When do polls close in Israel?
On Tuesday, polls opened at 7am local time (05:00 GMT) and will end at 10pm (20:00 GMT).
About 7.3 million Israelis will be eligible to vote, including 1.2 million Palestinian citizens of Israel. Israelis living abroad cannot vote because the country does not have a general absentee ballot, requiring voters to be physically present on election day.
Diplomats and state emissaries are the exception and cast their ballots at Israeli missions on October 20.
When will Israel’s election results be announced?
News channels will broadcast exit poll results once the election ends, with the first indications likely within a few hours of polls closing, but it could take days or weeks to get a clear result.
Results will also be live on the Central Elections Committee website once polls close.
While a clear picture of the election results may come out quickly, if no party or coalition secures a majority, it could take much longer.
The final vote tally is expected by Friday, and official election results are formally published a week after the election, on November 4.
How does the electoral system work?
Under a proportional representation system, Israelis vote for a single party, not individual candidates.
The number of seats the party gains in the Knesset is linked to the proportion of the vote it receives. For example, if Netanyahu’s Likud party secures 50 percent of the national vote, it would take 50 percent of the Knesset’s 120 seats.
A majority requires 61 of the 120 seats.
For a party to enter the Knesset, it must secure at least 3.25 percent of the national vote.
About a dozen parties are widely thought to have a chance of crossing the threshold, so the final tally and seat allocation will take time.
How is Israel’s next prime minister chosen?
Once the final count is in, President Isaac Herzog will speak with party leaders about who they want as prime minister, then tap the candidate he believes has the best chance of forming a government.
The person nominated then has up to 42 days to form a government. As it stands, no single party in Israel has ever won an outright majority, so governments are formed by a coalition of parties, and negotiations on forming a government often take weeks.
What happens if Netanyahu or his rivals cannot form a government?
If no government emerges, the current cabinet, Netanyahu’s government, will remain as a caretaker government.
But before that point, whoever gains the most votes will have different options to assemble support from smaller parties, including forming a minority government or working with another political leader to alternate as prime minister under a power-sharing arrangement.
If all negotiations fail, and no grouping is able to cobble together a workable government, new elections will have to be called.