Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may find it hard to return to power in Israel’s election on 27 October. A close fight is expected between his coalition and a Jewish-led opposition alliance, and it is uncertain whether either side will win a majority in the 120-seat parliament, the Knesset. Netanyahu, the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history, is contesting the election while on trial in corruption cases. It is the country’s first general election since its genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza and the wars involving Lebanon and Iran.
According to Israel’s Central Elections Committee, about 7.3 million citizens aged 18 or over are eligible to vote. Most polling stations will be open from 7am to 10pm, and anyone still in line when they close will be able to vote. Election day will be a public holiday.
A party needs at least 3.25 percent of the national vote to enter the Knesset. Parliament’s term is four years, but there is no term limit for the prime minister.
Israelis vote for political parties rather than individual candidates. Forming a government requires at least 61 of the Knesset’s 120 seats. No party has ever won that majority on its own.
Winning the most seats does not by itself let a party form a government. After the election, parties must build a coalition with the support of at least 61 seats. They are first given 28 days, which can be extended by 14 more. If no side forms a government in that time, a new election must be held.
Seats are allocated in proportion to each party’s share of the national vote. A party that wins 30 percent of the vote usually gets about 30 percent of the seats. Votes for parties that fail to cross the 3.25 percent threshold are left out of the allocation, which is why small parties often merge or form alliances before an election.
Complaints of unequal voting rights
About 7.3 million Israeli citizens are eligible to vote in this election. But not every adult living under the Israeli government’s control can vote.
About 3 million adult Palestinians living in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem cannot vote for a government that controls their borders, movement and legal status.
Alongside Jewish Israeli citizens, about 1.2 million Israeli citizens of Palestinian origin can vote. More than 750,000 Israeli settlers living in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem can vote too, electing a parliament that makes laws for the areas where they live.
Most Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem do not have Israeli citizenship but residency permits. They can vote in Jerusalem city council elections but not in Knesset elections.
The result is an inequality in the occupied West Bank, where an Israeli settler can vote while a Palestinian family living nearby, under the same military authority, cannot.
Most Israeli citizens living abroad cannot vote either, because the country generally has no postal or absentee voting. Voters must be physically in Israel on election day. Diplomats and state representatives serving abroad are the exception; they voted at Israeli missions on 20 October.
What could sway the vote
Israelis face several domestic and international issues in this election, among them the security failure of 7 October 2023, the exemption of ultra-Orthodox Jews from military conscription, judicial reform, war and security, and the cost of living.
About 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage in the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023. Three years on, the government has still not set up a state commission of inquiry into it. The attack was followed by Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza, in which at least 74,000 Palestinians have been killed and most of the besieged strip has been reduced to rubble.
The exemption of ultra-Orthodox Jews from compulsory military service is also at the centre of debate. Supporters say it protects full-time religious study.
Critics argue that it places an unequal burden of military duty on other citizens.
Judicial reform is also divisive. Netanyahu’s push to curb the Supreme Court’s powers set off mass protests across the country before the war began. Critics see it as a threat to democracy, while supporters say the court has overstepped its powers.
War and security may also shape voters’ choices. People want stability but are wary of concessions on Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon. Netanyahu has promised ‘total victory’, yet Hamas and Hezbollah remain active.
The cost of living is another major issue. High prices and relatively low wages are adding to financial strain. Israel’s defence budget has doubled since 2023, putting further pressure on public finances.
Seats held by the outgoing government
When parliament was dissolved in July, Netanyahu’s coalition held 60 of the Knesset’s 120 seats: Likud 32, Shas 11, Religious Zionism seven, Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit six and New Hope four. Shas left the government in July 2025 but stayed in the coalition, and New Hope will merge with Likud for this election.
Opposition parties held 59 seats: Yesh Atid 24, Blue and White eight, United Torah Judaism seven, Yisrael Beiteinu six, Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am five each and the Labour Party four. Noam’s one seat was not aligned with either side.
Netanyahu’s main rivals
Netanyahu is seeking re-election while on trial on corruption charges, which he denies. Against his far-right coalition stands an alliance of four major Jewish-led opposition parties. Their leaders have declared that they will not attack one another before the election and will work together to form a government afterwards.
Former army chief Gadi Eisenkot is seen as the opposition’s most likely candidate for prime minister. His new party, Yashar, is running level with Likud in opinion polls.
The opposition alliance also includes the Together list led by former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu and Yair Golan’s Democrats.
Far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, the ultra-Orthodox parties, and Ra’am and the Joint List, which represent Arab-majority voters, could all play an important part.
Last month Israel’s Central Elections Committee voted to disqualify Ra’am and the Joint List from the election. But on 2 October the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the ban, ruling that there was not enough evidence to meet the legal standard for excluding the two parties.
Sami Abu Shehadeh, leader of Balad, one of the parties in the Joint List, and an Israeli citizen of Palestinian origin, withdrew from the race after the court signalled that most judges might uphold his disqualification.
After the election, Arab-led parties could hold the balance of power. But most leaders of the Jewish-led opposition alliance have ruled out forming a coalition government with them.
The sixth election in seven years
The election on 27 October will be Israel’s sixth national election since 2019. But it will be the first in 38 years to be held in the normal way, after the Knesset has served its full term.
The political instability began in April 2019, when Netanyahu’s Likud and Benny Gantz’s Blue and White each won 35 seats. A second election that September also ended in deadlock, with Blue and White on 33 seats and Likud on 32. In neither election could any side win a majority and form a government.
In a third election in March 2020, Likud won 36 seats and Blue and White 33. A unity government under Netanyahu and Gantz followed but collapsed within a year.
In March 2021 Likud won 30 seats and Yesh Atid 17. An eight-party coalition led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid then took office, including the Arab party Ra’am, ending Netanyahu’s 12 years in power in a row. That government also lasted a year.
Netanyahu returned to power in November 2022, when Likud won 32 seats and Yesh Atid 24. The government he formed has been described as the most right-wing in Israel’s history. Ahead of this election, however, polls show neither bloc securing a 61-seat majority.
Israel’s longest-serving prime minister
Israel has had 14 prime ministers since its founding in 1948. Netanyahu has held the office the longest: 19 years in total over three spells, from 1996 to 1999, from 2009 to 2021 and from 2022 to the present.
Closest to him is David Ben-Gurion, who was prime minister from 1948 to 1954 and again from 1955 to 1963.
Whatever the result on 27 October, Netanyahu will remain caretaker prime minister until a new government is sworn in.
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