A man armed with a knife who was heading threateningly towards Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats, while he was busy mobilizing voters in Tel Aviv, was arrested by the police. We vote to renew parliament and define the next government. The exit polls will arrive when the polls close, but the final results will only be made official on November 4th. At 12, voter turnout nationwide stood at 31.5%, a record since the historic elections of 1977.
Polls open in Israel where today - from 6am to 9pm, Italian time - the first political elections are being held after the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 and the war that followed, in Gaza and then in Lebanon and Iran. We vote to renew the Knesset, i.e. the parliament, and to define the next government. A head-to-head match is expected between the outgoing Prime Minister Netanyahu and his challenger Eisenkot.
There are over 7 million voters and there are 36 parties in the running, of which only 13 are detected in the polls because they exceed the threshold of 3.25%. The exit polls will be announced immediately when the polls close, but the final results will be made official only eight days after the vote, i.e. on November 4th. This is because counting "double envelopes", i.e. those who vote far from their place of residence, such as soldiers, diplomats and hospitalized people, takes longer. At stake in this election is not only the future of the Jewish State, but also the balance in the Middle East.
The Israeli Central Election Commission announces that at 12 pm (11 am in Italy) the turnout at the national level stood at 31.5%, equal to 2 million voters. It is the highest figure since the historic elections of 1977, in which the Likud won for the first time after years of Labor governments since the foundation of the state.
The Central Election Commission reports that at 2 pm the turnout for the elections to the 26th Knesset reached 44.9%. "We have broken all records," said the acting director general of the Central Election Commission, lawyer Din Livne, "we have broken all records recorded by the Election Commission since 1973, there have never been similar data before."
At 1pm, voter turnout among Israeli soldiers stood at 48%, compared to the 44.4% recorded in the previous elections in 2022 at this time. The army reported it.
Yashar President Gadi Eisenkot voted in the Knesset renewal elections at a polling station in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv.
The Democrats party said that, during a voter mobilization tour by Yair Golan in Tel Aviv's Hasila Park, a knife-wielding suspect approached him "in a threatening manner." In the note, the party claims that "Golan's bodyguards blocked him and, when they approached, a large knife fell to the ground".
"It is a decisive moment, we know what is at stake. Vote for the future of the State of Israel." Benjamin Netanyahu stated this in a message released by his office. The outgoing prime minister is adopting the strategy of showering messages on social media, with videos, through his office.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged voters to go out and vote, claiming that the left is flocking to the polls. "Higher than usual turnout percentages in the strongholds of the left. Right or Palestine, seriously. For right-wing voters this is an hour of emergency. Go out and vote now!", is the message he posted on X.
Ahmad Tibi, leader of Ta'al, reported on X that "settler representatives in polling stations in Arab communities are delaying the voting process and intentionally slowing it down."
The Yashar party, led by Gadi Eisenkot, has filed an urgent complaint with the Central Election Commission, reporting incidents of removal or damage to its ballot papers at polling stations across the country. “The large number of incidents raises serious suspicion that these are not isolated incidents, but rather a systematic and deliberate attempt to sabotage the democratic process,” the party stressed.
In the Negev, southern Israel, three people were arrested overnight, suspected of being involved in a plan to convince voters to vote for Mansour Abbas' Ra'am party. The Israeli Police announced this, specifying that searches were carried out in the homes of the three suspects and that envelopes with tens of thousands of shekels in cash were found.
