Israel heads upcoming do-over elections
Xinhua
1568642538000

JERUSALEM, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Israel was preparing Monday for the unprecedented repeat parliamentary elections scheduled on Tuesday for the second time in five months.

d9dd6a52252e4bf8a60839fed0e4711a.jpg

An Arab resident in Jaffa, Israel, September 10, 2019. (Photo: CGTN)

Some 6.4 million eligible voters could cast their ballots in 11,163 polling stations across the nation on Tuesday, according to Israeli Central Elections Committee's figures.

Most recent opinion polls show a razor tight race between incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party and Benny Gantz, Israel's ex-chief of forces and leader of the centrist party of Blue and White.

The Elections Committee said some 3,000 supervisors will patrol the polling stations after accusations of frauds and misconducts in the April elections have been made. For the time in Israel, the inspectors will carry cameras on their bodies, which they would be allowed to operate in case of suspicion of fraud.

The police said that some 18,000 policemen, undercover police officers, border police officers and security guards will be deployed throughout the country from the morning hours until the end of the election day.

"The aim is to keep the public order and to ensure that the due democratic process could take place," a police spokesperson said in a statement.

Also on Monday, Israel's Airport Authority closed the airspace in the vicinity of the Israeli-Lebanese border for all civilian traffic to ensure the elections. The prohibition will be lifted on Tuesday morning, the Airport Authority said in a statement.

In a bid to mobilize supporters to the polling stations, Netanyahu's Likud party issued "warnings" that the elections could be stolen by voters in Arab communities and said it will send activists with hidden cameras to polls in Arab towns.

However, the accusation, which was not backed by any evidence, was condemned by Arab and left-wing lawmakers as racism and an attempt to deter Arab voters and decrease their turnout.

The elections are being held after Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, failed to build a governing coalition following the elections in April.

Netanyahu won a narrow victory over Gantz and seemed to have a good chance of establishing a 61-member coalition in the 120-seat parliament with his traditional partners, small right-wing parties and the ultra-Orthodox parties.

However, Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the far-right "Israel Our Home" party and Netanyahu's former defense minister, refused to join a coalition with ultra-Orthodox unless a law to force Yeshiva (Jewish seminary) students to serve in the army would be legislated.

In order to prevent President Reuven Rivlin from handing another candidate the opportunity of building a governing coalition, Netanyahu moved to call for the new elections.

Netanyahu is entangled in several criminal corruption affairs, with possible indictments after the elections.