Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to be best positioned in the tight race to win the Israel election on 9 April and head the next government, but it won't be easy.
His decade-long dominance of Israeli politics has been the biggest issue of the campaign as he faces two challenges: corruption charges (which he denies and a decision on which will be made post-election), and a strong opponent in former military chief Benny Gantz.
What do the polls predict?
About 5.8 million Israelis are eligible to vote this year, according to the Israeli statistics bureau.
Recent polls have shown that the right-wing bloc led by Mr Netanyahu will win a majority. But they also show a new centrist party headed by a popular former general emerging as the largest faction in parliament. Surveys detect many undecided voters who could swing the election either way.
A supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wearing a Donald Trump mask in Jerusalem. Source: AFP/Getty Images
How does the election work?
The 120 Knesset seats are allocated by proportional representation to party lists. In order to win seats in the Knesset, a party must pass a threshold of at least 3.25 per cent of the national vote, equivalent to four seats.
No single party has ever won an outright majority in the Knesset, making coalition governments the norm. After the election and consultations with party leaders, Israel’s president asks the candidate whom he judges has the best chance of forming a coalition to try and put together a government.
That is usually the person heading the largest party, but not necessarily. That candidate has 28 days to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension. If he or she fails then the president tasks a different candidate with the job.
Who are the key parties?
- Likud
Headed by Mr Netanyahu, the biggest right-wing party in Israel is predicted to win about 29 seats. Likud champions tough security policies when it comes to Iran, Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Many of its members oppose the creation of a Palestinian state.
Mr Netanyahu, in a last-minute election promise, said he would annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins another term. In the run-up to the vote, Likud has rallied around Netanyahu, who is facing possible indictment in three corruption cases - which carry charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust - in which he has denied any wrongdoing.
Mr Netanyahu last week. Source: AFP/Getty Images
- Blue and White
Headed by former military chief Benny Gantz, who has emerged as a serious rival to Netanyahu, his party is forecast to win 31 seats. Gantz is a popular former armed forces chief and a political newcomer. He joined forces with the right-wing Moshe Yaalon, a former defence minister, and centre-left former finance minister Yair Lapid to form the new centrist Blue and White party.
Mr Gantz has called for pursuing peace with the Palestinians while maintaining Israeli security interests. He has signalled he would make territorial concessions toward the Palestinians but has also sidestepped the question of Palestinian statehood.
Benny Gantz is said to pose the biggest competition. Source: Getty Images
Mr Gantz has vowed clean government, while at the same time giving mixed signals over whether he would join a Netanyahu-led coalition.
- Labour
Opinion polls have shown left-wing Labour, headed by Avi Gabbay and a party which governed Israel for decades, plummeting to 10 seats in the election from its current 18.
Its campaign has stressed social and economic reform, as well as pursuing peace and a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
What do the locals say?
Eyal Vardi has voted for Israel's Labour party for most of his adult life, but the 60-year-old wants to support a winner this year.
Attending a recent open house for a candidate for another party in an affluent community west of Jerusalem, Mr Vardi points out that Labour has all but abandoned its leftwing roots anyway. He'll vote for the centrist Blue and White party instead.
"They're not really different. So it's better to give my voice to him," he said, beckoning to Blue and White candidate Michael Biton. "And that's probably what I'm going to do."
Mr Vardi's decision is indicative of the way in which Israel's Labour party has fallen out of favour with many voters.
Tanyah Murkes, 34, a resident of central city Modiin, said she was deliberating between Blue and White, Labour and Meretz - a left-wing party popular with liberal middle-class Israelis and predicted to win five to six seats in the Knesset.
Israeli soldiers cast their votes at the Erez army base near the border with the Gaza strip. Source: AFP/Getty Images
"I think in the end I'll give my vote to Labour, to strengthen the Israeli left," said Murkes, the director of Forum Dvorah, an NGO advancing women in foreign policy and national security institutions.
Meretz are too small and Blue and White "are not presenting a centre-left policy. They are leaning more to the right," she said.
A strong Labour party could "unite the nation" and provide a "counterweight to the right, which is very strong now."
"I'd like to vote for a party that would be a significant part of the coalition, or lead the opposition."
- Reuters, AFP
