By Aryeh Savir/TPS • 17 September, 2019
Israel’s citizens on Tuesday went to the ballots to vote for Israel’s 22nd Knesset and the country’s leadership for the next four years, for the second time this year.
The 6,3940,00 eligible voters can arrive at 10,788 ballots across the country and cast their vote for one of the 29 parties running for the Knesset.
Convicts can vote at 58 ballots in prisons, and patients can vote at 190 ballots posted in hospitals.
Israel’s police deployed 19,000 officers and security personnel to maintain the peace and ensure that the election day proceeds in a democratic fashion.
A party requires some 140,000 votes, about 3.25 percent of the votes which are equal to four seats in the Knesset, to pass the electoral threshold, and therefore the majority of the parties will not be voted into Israel’s parliament.
The main battle is between the right-wing bloc, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party, and between the center-left bloc, led by Benny Gantz and his Blue and White party.
Israel is again voting after Netanyahu failed to form a government after the April elections.
While 65 Members of Knesset recommended that Netanyahu be entrusted with the formation of the new government, he has been unable to bridge the differences among his potential coalition partners.
MK Avigdor Liberman and his Yisrael Beiteinu party demanded the passage of a law pertaining to the draft of the Ultra-Orthodox community into the IDF.
The Ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties made concessions regarding the draft law but were unwilling to adopt the formula that Liberman demanded.
After another exceptionally vicious campaigns which focused primarily on the candidates rather than on the issues at hand, Israel is again holding its breath in anticipation of the exit polls, which are slated to be published at 10 PM local time.
It should be noted that the exit polls last elections in 2015 failed to predict the actual outcome of the elections, and one of the polls in April was way off the mark.