Israel Holds Knesset Election on October 27: 7.33 Million Voters, 12,018 Polling Stations Open Until 10 p.m.
Israelis voted on Tuesday, October 27, in elections for the 26th Knesset, the country's first national vote since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023. According to the Central Elections Committee, 7,331,981 people are eligible to vote. Most polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local time and close at 10 p.m., while smaller localities and stations in hospitals, prisons and old-age homes vote from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The committee operates 12,018 polling stations, including more than 6,200 accessible stations, and has deployed about 100,000 workers, printed some 450 million ballot slips and installed about 15,000 oversight cameras. Election day is a national holiday, and the committee arranged 660 free intercity transport routes, including all Israel Railways lines. Nationwide turnout figures are published every two hours from 11 a.m. Military voting began on October 21 at army bases and outposts, and about 330,000 young Israelis are voting for the first time.
Under Israel's closed-list proportional system, voters choose party lists rather than a prime minister directly; a list needs at least 3.25 percent of valid votes to enter the 120-seat Knesset, and 61 seats are needed for a majority. Thirty-eight lists are on the ballot. Final polls pointed to a tight race: Channel 12 put Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar on 23 seats against 21 for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud, Channel 13 put them on 22 and 19, and public broadcaster Kan on 22 and 20, with the Bennett-Lapid joint list B'Yachad projected at roughly 12 to 15 seats. Most final polls showed neither bloc reaching 61 seats.
The outgoing parliament is the first since 1988 to serve a complete four-year term without early dissolution. Its term covered mass protests over proposed judicial changes, the October 7 attacks and the Gaza war that followed, and repeated disputes over conscription for ultra-Orthodox men. Counting by hand begins when polls close; official results are expected around November 4, and the largest list does not automatically produce the next prime minister, which depends on coalition talks.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 位于耶路撒冷的以色列议会大楼（资料图）。Tsvika Israeli 摄，以色列政府新闻办公室，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The Knesset building in Jerusalem (file photo). Photo by Tsvika Israeli, Israel Government Press Office, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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