Israel Votes on 27 October: How the Election System Works and Who Is Left Out

Israelis go to the polls on 27 October to elect the 26th Knesset, in the sixth election since 2019 and the first general vote since the wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history, with 19 years in office, is seeking another term while standing trial on corruption charges. His Likud party and the far-right coalition it leads are locked in a close race with a Jewish-led opposition bloc, with neither side appearing on track to win an outright majority in the 120-seat Knesset, Israel's parliament.

About 7.3 million people aged 18 and above are eligible to vote, according to Israel's Central Elections Committee. Most polling stations open from 7am to 10pm, and anyone still queuing when they close is entitled to vote. Election day is a national holiday.

A majority requires 61 of the 120 seats, and no party has ever won that outright. Finishing first, therefore, does not guarantee power.

After the vote, parties have 28 days, with a possible extension of up to 14 days, to assemble a coalition reaching 61 seats. If nobody manages it, the country votes again.

Seats are shared out in proportion to each party's share of the national vote, so a party winning 30 percent of votes takes roughly 30 percent of seats. The votes for parties failing to secure 3.25 percent are discarded, which explains why small parties routinely merge before every election.

Any party clearing an electoral threshold of 3.25 percent enters parliament, which sits for a four-year term. There are no term limits for a prime minister.

But not everyone living under the government being chosen is a voter. Roughly three million adult Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem have no vote in the government that controls their borders, movement and legal status.

Jewish Israelis and Palestinian citizens of Israel, who number about 1.2 million, can vote. So can adult settlers among the more than 750,000 Israelis living in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, who help elect the parliament that legislates over the land they live on.

Most Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem hold Israeli residency, not citizenship. They can vote for Jerusalem's city council but not for the Knesset.

This structure produces a sharp anomaly in the occupied West Bank, the analysis in the source material notes — people living on the same land, with one part holding voting rights and the other part not.

The 27 October result will therefore decide not only Netanyahu's future, but also whether the complex arithmetic of coalition-building pushes Israel towards yet another vote. With neither side appearing headed for an outright majority, coalition negotiations are set to be the real contest.