Israeli Election: Record Voter Turnout as Netanyahu Battles Gantz

Israelis vote at a polling station in Tel Aviv during parliamentary election on March 2, 2
GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP
Deborah Brand

TEL AVIV – Israeli voters took to the ballots Monday for the third time in a year with the hopes of breaking a political deadlock and seeing the formation of a 23rd Knesset. 

Polls largely indicate another stalemate as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party run neck and neck.
Of 6,453,255 eligible voters, turnout  stood at 27.6 percent at 12 p.m., the highest turnout at this time since 1999. More than 10,000 polling stations were set up across the country and an additional 14 “coronavirus polling stations” were set up for the 5,630 Israelis quarantined due to exposure to the virus.
President Reuven Rivlin said he felt ashamed to be voting yet again,

“This is normally a festive day, but the truth is that I don’t feel celebratory,” he said from a polling station in Jerusalem. “I only feel a sense of deep shame when I face you, my fellow citizens.

“We simply don’t deserve this. We don’t deserve another awful and grubby election campaign like the one that ends today and we don’t deserve this never-ending instability. We deserve a government that works for us.

“I very much hope that we meet again only in 2024, or at least that I won’t see another election campaign as president of the country that is so dear to us all,” the president concluded.

At least three major polls taken days ahead of the national election show Likud party inching ahead of rival Blue and White for the first time.

Commentators have said the drop in support for Blue and White seems to be the result of the pending investigation into his former hitech firm, Fifth Dimension.

Netanyahu in the morning urged the public to ignore “fake news” regarding coronavirus at polling stations and get out and vote.

“I urge the citizens of Israel to go vote. This is a great democratic right and we should be proud of it,” Netanyahu said before casting his ballot in Jerusalem.

“We have done everything we can against the coronavirus. Everything is under control and we have taken every possible measure. Don’t believe fake news, you can vote with determination and confidence.”

Voting in his hometown of Tybe, MK Ahmad Tibi,the Arab-majority Joint List, said his party would get an unprecedented 15 seats.

“Today, we will make history. We are going to realize an unprecedented achievement — at least 15 seats,” he said.

Voting in Tel Aviv, Blue and White’s No. 2 Yair Lapid said today was a choice between unity and hate.

“I didn’t go to vote for a party today, I went to vote for what kind of country we will have here tomorrow,” he said. “Will we have a country that’s good and fair and respectful and unifying or a country of division and hate?”

A clip of Lapid asking a little girl who she will vote for made the rounds on social media for her rather unflattering answer.
“Hi Amalia, who are you going to vote for?” Lapid asked her.

“For Bibi,” she answered.

Lapid answered with a smile and aplomb, “Oy for Bibi.”

 

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