Bar Association calls for extended hours for key vote as long lines reported at polls

By Jeremy Sharon

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20 June 2023, 2:36 pm

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Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter

Election campaign posters for the head of the Israel Bar Association, outside a voting station at the Magistrate's Court in Jerusalem, June 20, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Lengthy lines at polling stations for the Israel Bar Association (IBA) elections are reported at numerous voting places around the country, as tens of thousands of attorneys seek to vote in a ballot that could have huge consequences for the judiciary and the country at large.

Footage posted on social media shows lines with dozens if not hundreds of people and accounts by voters who said it took two hours or more to vote.

As a result, the IBA sent a request to Justice Minister Yariv Levin to extend voting hours at the polling stations, although the minister is yet to respond to the request.
According to the IBA, the voter turnout as of 1:45 p.m. was 20.8% of eligible voters. Previous elections have seen overall turnout of under 30%.