In the parliamentary elections, Israeli polling stations opened on Tuesday 17 September at 7 am (local time, 4 pm GMT) and have to close at 10 pm (7 pm GMT). Some 6.4 million voters are invited to the 10,700 polling stations to decide between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former army chief Benny Gantz.
The polls place two blocks side by side: that of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud, located on the right of the political chessboard and the blue-white centrist list, led by former Chief of Staff Benny Gantz.
Last April, Likud and Bleu Blanc each won 35 seats out of 120 in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. President Reuven Rivlin mandated Benjamin Netanyahu to form a coalition government. Unable to do so, he dissolved the Parliament and called for a new election.
A set of wedding rings
In the last five months, the tectonic plates of Israeli politics have not moved too far and polls are predicting a tough new duel, where the sometimes subtle game of alliances could determine the fate of the government.
An aggregator of polls credited parties with 32 seats each. The score of their potential allies, the right and religious parties for Benjamin Netanyahu, and the left and Arab parties for Benny Gantz, should be decisive.
Parties can not escape the alliance game. Of the 120 seats in the Knesset, political parties must bring together at least 61 deputies to govern. But since the birth of the country in 1948, none alone has managed to win this majority.
Avigdor Lieberman as the referee
After counting the ballots, the party with the most seats is allowed to negotiate with other smaller parties to form a government. They have 42 days to form a viable coalition. This explains why small parties often turn into king-makers.
This time, one of the kingmakers might be Avigdor Lieberman, an ally of Benyamin Netanyahu. At the head of a far-right party, the former head of diplomacy had already shaken off the formation of a government last April. In exchange for his political support, he demanded a law removing the exemption from military service for ultra-Orthodox youth. This measure divides Israeli society and could be at the heart of the next post-election negotiations.
With AFP