The first ballots have been cast in Israel’s third election in a year, as some 5,200 Israeli diplomats in 77 countries around the word cast their ballots on Wednesday and Thursday. Israel will go to the polls on March 2.
Turnout across Israel’s 96 diplomatic missions fell again, in a possible sign of what to expect when the wider public turns out on 2 March, with only 66 per cent of diplomats casting ballots. This compares to 69.5 per cent and 76 per cent in September and April 2019.
Voting began on Wednesday in New Zealand, Israel’s most easterly embassy and continued for 32 hours until the Israeli mission in San Francisco closed its doors.
In London, Israeli Ambassador Mark Regev made a tongue-in-cheek remark about Israel’s electoral gridlock on his Twitter feed, remarking that, “We do democracy at least three times better than anywhere else in the Middle East.”
