Polls Close for Israeli Elections, Results to Come

by Rob Walker | February 10, 2009 at 10:08 am

199 views | 4 Recommendations | 0 comments

Polls have closed across Israel as the elections end on Tuesday, with close to 60 per cent of the electorate had showed up to vote, according to recent polling.

Exit polls suggest the Kadima party, led by Tzipi Livni, won 30 seats, compared to Likud Party's 28. T official results won't be known for several hours.

Small problems were reported during the elections, with a scattering of violence and allegations from rival parties of vote rigging. One woman was arrested for attempting to bring fraudulent ballots into a polling station.

A rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck the southern Israeli city of Sderot a half hour before polls close. Sderot is the site of many of the 35 rockets and mortars fired at Israel in the two weeks since a cease-fire took place two weeks ago.

A Qassam rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip exploded in an open field near the western Negev city of Sderot on Tuesday evening, just half an hour before the polls were to close on Israel's general election.

We have a channel with member stories and media that can be found here.

Police arrested a woman in Jerusalem (al-Quds) after she entered a polling station with forged ballots allegedly belonging to Avigdor Lieberman's YIsrael Beiteinu faction.

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud was front-runner, ahead of Tzipi Livni of the governing Kadima party.
However, first exit polls suggest that Kadima has won 30 seats ahead of the Likud party on 28.