Record Voter Turnout Sees High Participation in Arab Towns

By 6:00 PM on election day, turnout had already reached 66.7%, prompting urgent mobilization efforts across the political spectrum. Right-wing and Haredi leaders expressed deep concern over the high participation in Arab and left-leaning areas. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich warned against wasting votes on parties near the threshold, while MK Yaakov Asher issued an urgent appeal to the Haredi public, calling the high Arab and left-wing turnout a dangerous situation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held emergency meetings to boost right-wing participation and discussed the rising Arab turnout with Smotrich.

In the Arab sector, Sakhnin recorded the highest turnout at 87%, Kafr Qasim reached 86%, and Bedouin towns in the Negev like Rahat and Kseifa reported 85% participation. Major cities also saw increases of 5 to 6 percentage points compared to the previous election, though they remained below the national average, with Tel Aviv at 65%, Jerusalem at 66%, and Haifa at 62%. Two small localities in the Arava, Paran and Shaharut, achieved a perfect 100% voter turnout.

As voting concluded, attention shifted to exit polls and the vote count. Preliminary exit polls indicated a tight race between the major political blocs, with the bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot appearing to be ahead in some polls, while the Likud party led among individual parties. Several smaller parties struggled to cross the 3.25% electoral threshold, and ultra-Orthodox parties reportedly saw a significant decline, suggesting potential difficulties in forming a stable government.