Israel Election: Netanyahu Votes After 2.3 Million Cast Ballots by Midday

Turnout surges, stakes loom

Israel’s October 27, 2026 parliamentary election opened with polling stations in Israel and the West Bank, with voting scheduled to end at 10:00 p.m., and the Central Election Committee reported turnout at 16.7 percent by 10:00 a.m. with 1.2 million votes cast. The Central Election Committee later reported that voter turnout at 10 a.m. reached 16.68%, or about 1.2 million people, marking an increase from 15.9% at the same time in 2022. The Central Election Committee also reported that turnout at noon reached 31.5 percent, with over 2.3 million Israelis voting, and Acting Central Elections Committee Director-General Dean Livne announced that 2,309,000 citizens had voted by midday.

President Isaac Herzog voted in Jerusalem alongside his wife Michal and told reporters, “This is our day to go out, make a difference and vote,” while he also urged Israelis to participate in the democratic process. Benjamin Netanyahu, 77, cast his ballot after urging Israelis to vote “the right way,” as the election’s outcome was expected to determine the composition of the 120-member parliament and whether any single party could reach the 61 seats needed for a majority.

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Ballot disputes and accusations

Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar filed an urgent complaint with the Central Elections Committee after further reports that ballot slips were removed, defaced, or turned over at polling stations across the country. Yashar said, “The large number of incidents raises serious suspicions that these are not isolated mishaps, but rather a systematic and deliberate attempt to sabotage the democratic process,” and it called on the CEC to intervene immediately, conduct frequent inspections, and replenish missing ballot slips. Netanyahu sent voters a recorded message accusing the left and Arab parties of trying to “steal the election,” and he claimed police had “caught three senior United Arab List officials with envelopes of cash in the south.”

The United Arab List confirmed the three people detained in the Negev were party activists, denied they held senior roles, and called the arrests groundless. The Central Elections Committee dismissed reports of systematic damage to ballot slips and said it had found no evidence of widespread tampering, while officials said individual complaints were being examined immediately.

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Coalition math and Arab priorities

With no bloc assured of a majority, coalition talks were expected to take weeks or months, and the election was described as highly unlikely to produce a party close to the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-member parliament.

The Arab vote was framed as potentially decisive, and Yousef Jabareen, leader of the Joint List, said he had promised to support from outside any government capable of replacing Netanyahu.

Al-Arabi TV correspondent Ahmad Daroucha said turnout in Nazareth and surrounding Arab towns was high compared with previous elections, and journalist Ali Habib Allah argued, “This day is the day of the Arabs for us, a reply to everything we have seen and lived through over the past four years.”

Ali Habib Allah added that “the priority is to raise turnout as much as possible; because increasing it means greater Arab representation in the Knesset,” linking turnout to “less space for the right, fascists, and racists.”

The election’s broader political stakes were also tied to Netanyahu’s security-focused campaign and his rejection of a Palestinian state, while Eisenkot accused Netanyahu and his government of “continuing to shirk their responsibilities” regarding the failings that enabled the Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

Reporting for this sectionL'Orient Today