Voting in the Israeli general elections began on Thursday at Tel Aviv's diplomatic missions abroad, approximately two weeks before the scheduled election on October 27. The Times of Israel website reported that the first votes were cast during the night hours, as polling opened at missions around the world.
Details of the electoral process
Voting for diplomatic mission staff and their family members will last approximately 30 hours, with embassies opening their doors during daytime hours according to the local time in each country. 101 polling stations will operate in 99 diplomatic missions, allowing approximately 4,800 eligible voters to cast their ballots. Voting from abroad is restricted to envoys, diplomatic staff, and their family members.
Sequence of polling station openings
The Israeli embassy in Wellington, New Zealand, was the first mission to open its doors for voting at 9:00 a.m. local time. This was followed by the embassy staff in Fiji, where the polling station opened one hour after voting began in New Zealand. The last missions are the consulates in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the United States, where polling closes at 8:00 p.m. local time.
Expected results and political context
After voting concludes, ballot papers will be flown to Israel and then sent to the Knesset for counting. Opinion polls show that neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s camp nor the Jewish opposition can independently reach the threshold of 61 seats out of 120 required to form a government. Both Netanyahu’s camp and the Jewish opposition agree on rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state as stipulated in relevant UN resolutions within the framework of the two-state solution.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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