As of 4 p.m. on Tuesday, 3,224,350 Israelis, or 47.5% of eligible voters, had cast ballots in elections for the 25th Knesset, according to the Israeli Central Elections Committee (CEC), the highest turnout at that hour on Election Day since 1999.
A total of 6,788,804 people are eligible to vote at more than 12,000 stations set up across the country.
As of 2 p.m., 38.9% of eligible voters had cast ballots; as of 10 a.m., 15.9% of people eligible had voted, surpassing the 14.8% figure set during the last election in March 2021.
During that election, 25.4% had voted by 12 p.m.
The high turnout reflects the electorate’s trust in the Jewish state’s democratic system, said Israeli President Isaac Herzog during a visit to the CEC at the Knesset.
“It’s very impressive to see this diverse, sophisticated, supervised and responsible operation, and I am convinced that the CEC will do its work faithfully and of course will thus reflect the public’s confidence in the electoral process,” Herzog added.
“Go vote and make a difference, because each vote has an impact,” he said.