Netanyahu fights to stay in power as voting underway in Israel’s record third election

Citizens fear another stalemate as polling stations open across the country where over 6 million people are eligible to cast their ballots

Ultra-Orthodox Jews vote in the Israeli religious city of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv (AFP via Getty Images)

Benjamin Netanyahu is battling to stay in power just days before the start of his corruption trial, as citizens began voting in Israel's third election in under a year which polls predict will end yet another deadlock.

More than 6.4 million people are eligible to cast their ballot across nearly 11,000 polling stations, with 14 special stations created for those quarantined due to exposure to the coronavirus.

Since April, Mr Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has failed twice to form a ruling coalition following two previous inconclusive votes. His chief rival ex-army chief Benny Gantz, who heads the Blue and White party, was also unable to sweep a majority of the 120-seat parliament.

Mr Netanyahu has also been formally indicted in three cases on graft charges he has vehemently and repeatedly denied.

The impasse has meant for the last year Israel has been led by a caretaker government that cannot pass a budget or certain laws bringing the country to a political standstill.

At the polling stations, there was growing voter anger over the stalemate. Citizens said they feared the same inconclusive results as the April and September votes, because the country remains bitterly divided.

“I don’t know what the result will be, but I think it could be just like the last times,” said Nir Amsel, 45, a Blue and White voter from Tel Aviv.

“I worry that people who are undecided will go with Netanyahu because they’re sick of the situation and believe that he has the best chance of forming a ruling coalition.”

A fellow Blue and White voter Noga Ratz, 63, added: "This is already the third elections and our budget has run out and we don’t have a functioning government."

"I want to have an Israel for the next generation so they won’t need to run away to live abroad," she said.

On the other side of the political divide Yasmin Farhadian, 31, a doctor voting Likud, said she felt the desperation to break the deadlock might see many more heading out to vote.

"I think something's different this time. I think [Likud supporters] understand this is it. Now this time, there's the feeling that if people don’t go out to vote, it just won’t happen. That there really will be an opportunity for [the Left] to win".

President Reuven Rivlin meanwhile said he felt "deep shame" for the repeat election as he cast his ballot.

"We don't deserve this. We don't deserve another horrible and filthy campaign like the one that ends today and we don't deserve this endless instability. We deserve a government that will work for us," he added.

Unperturbed Netanyahu cast his vote in Jerusalem focusing on measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus rather than the repeat election saying: “The corona thing is completely under control. Today we’ve taken all the precautions that are necessary, people can go and vote, with complete confidence.”

The final polls released by Israeli media on Friday show both Mr Netanyahu’s Likud and Mr Gantz’s centrist alliance Blue and White neck-and-neck with seat numbers around 33, mirroring the last election in September.

The Channel 13 and 12 polls also predicted neither party would be able to drum up enough support from their political allies to build a parliamentary bloc of 61-seats needed to rule.

Firmly in the middle, according to both polls, is the so-called “kingmaker” Avigdor Lieberman, head of right-wing Yisrael Beitenu party, who is predicted to get around seven seats and so could swing the results, but has refused to join either a Likud-led or Blue and White-led bloc.

Instead, the right-wing nationalist, who cast his ballot in the Israeli settlement of Nokdim in the occupied West Bank on Monday, is pushing for a unity government of both parties.

The idea has failed, however, as neither side can agree on whether Mr Netanyahu should remain prime minister in a rotation deal.

The embattled premier goes on trial 17 March for charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, stemming from accusations he accepted lavish gifts from billionaire friends and promised to promote advantageous legislation for a major newspaper in exchange for favourable coverage.

He has vowed to prove his innocence in court and has dismissed the legal proceedings as a “political witch hunt”.

Blue and White have over the last few elections agreed in part to forming a unity government with Likud but on the condition Mr Netanyahu not be prime minister while he remains on trial, saying he might use his position to seek a form of immunity.

Likud has refused to agree to a deal where Mr Netanyahu does not remain in office, with Likud official Eli Hazan telling The Independent: “If the leader is under persecution, we are all under persecution, we close ranks”.

According to the latest polls, Mr Netanyahu overall remains more popular than Mr Gantz but only marginally.

Under the shadow of the graft cases, Mr Netanyahu has fought a fierce elections campaign, slamming a Gantz-led government as one that would have to rely on support from Arab parties in Israel, tapping into his right-wing supporters' suspicion of Israel’s 21-percent Arab minority.

Mr Netanyahu has also made repeated promises to immediately annex the occupied West Bank, despite it being illegal under international law and prompting fierce backlash from the Palestinians as well as rights groups.

Likud has widened its net to bring in left field voters, including making promises to Israel’s 150,000-strong Israeli-Ethiopian citizens and those convicted of possessing cannabis.

For the first time since the election 2009, the right-wing party has released an economic manifesto that promises to drastically lower soaring food and housing costs.

In another first, Mr Netanyahu even offered an elections debate, something he has also refused to do since taking office for the second time 11 years ago.

Mr Gantz has meanwhile played up Netanyahu’s legal woes, claiming the premier is leading the country “like a mafioso,” who will do anything to escape the law.

“In the face of the madness, in the face of the lies and the toxicity, we carry hope, “he said at a campaign event in Tel Aviv.

On Monday as he voted in Rosh HaAyin he added: "I’m hopeful that today we can set Israel on a new course.”

His team told The Independent they had homed in on the 70,000 or so new voters, who are able to cast their ballots for the first time on Monday, with promises on youth-centric issues like climate change.

But this has done little to shift voter positions which remain deeply entrenched with analysts calling the elections yet another referendum on the popularity of Mr Netanyahu.

The results of Monday’s vote are expected to come in overnight after polling stations close at 10pm local time (8pm GMT).

Following this, president Reuven Rivlin will select a candidate he believes has the best chance of building the 61-seat majority to build a government, giving the candidate six weeks to form a coalition.

If he fails, another candidate then has 28 days to form an alternative coalition. If that fails, a fourth round of elections will likely be called.

Mr Netanyahu is hoping to drum up last-minute support to nudge forward his bloc, with hardline Yamima and ultra-orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism.

Mr Gantz is hoping to build a strong coalition with centre-left alliance of Labour, Meretz and Gisha parties.