Israeli diplomats have begun voting in the national elections, with the first ballot cast by Israel’s Ambassador in Wellington, New Zealand on Wednesday morning.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UK, H.E. Mark Regev and Deputy Ambassador Sharon Bar-Li also voted in London. The election is Israel’s third in the space of a year, and will take place in Israel on 2nd March.
The latest polls predict that opposition leader Benny Gantz will be the leader of the largest party, but he is unlikely to be able to form a 61 seat majority Government.
The latest poll published by Israel Hayom and broadcast by I24NEWS predicts that Gantz’s Blue and White party will win 36 seats, and puts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud on 33 seats, the Joint List on 13 seats, Labour-Gesher-Meretz 8 seats, Shas 8 seats, Yamina 8 seats, Yisrael Beiteinu 7 seats and United Torah Judaism 7 seats. This would give the centre-left and Joint List bloc: 57 seats, the right-wing-ultra-orthodox bloc: 56 seats.
Kingmaker Avigdor Liberman’s right-wing secularist Yisrael Beytenu party scored 8 seats in the television survey, enough to push either side above the necessary 61 seats, but Liberman has ruled out joining a coalition unless it is a national unity government.
There are 120 Knesset seats in total. The polls have consistently predicted little change since Israel’s last election on 17th September, which produced a similar result to the April election.
