Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara Netanyahu, voted at a polling station in a Jerusalem gymnasium Tuesday morning.

As the couple cast their ballots, Prime Minister Netanyahu called on Israelis to get out and vote in Israel’s fourth general election in under two years.

“This is a festival for Israel. Exercising democratic rights really excites me.”

“We are proud of our country and I call on everyone to go out and vote. We will all get back to life.”

6,578,084 eligible voters will be able to exercise their democratic right to vote for one of the 37 parties running in the election.

The 12,127 polling stations opened at 7:00 a.m. and close at 10:00 p.m., at which time the TV exit polls will be published. In small localities, prisons and hospitals the polling stations will open at 8:00 a.m. and close at 8:00 p.m.

A total of 1,200 polling stations have been set up in nursing homes, shelters, senior housing complexes and other housing complexes.

In addition, Israeli citizens will be able to vote this time at “bus ballots” – 50 Egged buses that have been converted to polling stations. The buses will assist with polling stations that become particularly busy, and will assist in cases of congestion at the “vote and go” complexes.

The Central Election Committee has set up 344 designated polling stations for coronavirus carriers who wish to vote. Patients in hospitals will be able to vote at special polling stations in the coronavirus wards of the hospitals.

The 65,000 Israelis in COVID isolation will be able to vote in one of the 424 polling stations that will be deployed in public buildings, health maintenance organizations and special “vote and go” complexes.

At polling stations for those in isolation, there will be no direct contact between the voters and the members of the polling station committee. Voters will receive the ballots behind a curtain and safely inset them in the ballot box.

The results are expected to be released starting early Wednesday morning, and the vote count – including the hundreds of thousands of double envelopes – is expected to be completed by Friday afternoon.

On March 31, the final and official results of the elections will be submitted to the President, and can be appealed to the court until April 14.

Source: Arutz Sheva

Header: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, voting in the March 23 elections | Photo: GPO/Kobi Gideon