Israelis vote Tuesday in an election in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to extend his long tenure in power despite corruption allegations against him. But he is facing a strong challenge by an ex-military chief, Benny Gantz. But there are many undecided voters who could swing the election either way.
Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, 69, leader of the right-wing Likud party, is seeking a fifth term in office. He has spent more than 13 years as premier and opinion polls show that he could well win again. If he wins he would be on track to surpass founding father David Ben-Gurion as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. Netanyahu is also the first sitting prime minister to be indicted on corruption charges.
Three-star general Benjamin “Benny” Gantz, 59, is promising to unseat the mercurial Netanyahu. Once praised by Netanyahu as an “excellent officer” to whom Israelis owed gratitude, the prime minister has now branded his competition as a “weak leftist”. Gantz’s Blue and White political alliance – a party merged in alliance with former finance minister and TV personality Yair Lapid – which includes two other military chiefs, Gabi Ashkenazi and Moshe Ya’alon, has been leading in the polls. It is more representative of Israelis than the eclipsing Labor Party, which lost its allure and influence a long time ago.
About 5.88 million eligible voters are set to vote in the Israeli elections on April 9 to elect a party that will lead the next Israeli government.
Fourteen main parties are competing for 120 seats in the 21st Knesset (parliament).
A party has to secure a majority of 61 seats out of 120 in order to form a government and choose a leader to become prime minister.
Once the results are in, all parties that pass the threshold then submit their choice of candidate for prime minister to President Reuven Rivlin. The President then assigns the job of forming a coalition to the party leader he thinks has the best chance of doing so.
