Voter turnout in second round of municipal elections at 36.4% as of 8 p.m.

By Sam Sokol 10 March 2024, 9:40 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Voter turnout rose to 36.4 percent as of 8 p.m. on Sunday in the second round of Israel’s nationwide municipal elections, with only 350,851 voters casting ballots in 35 races across the country.

This includes 48.7% of eligible voters having gone to the polls in Beit Shemesh, 45.8% in Kiryat Gat, 39.1% in Rehovot, 37.1% in Pardes Hanna-Karkur, 34.3 in Ness Ziona, 32.6% in Ramle and 23.7% in Haifa.

Elections are being held today in locations where none of the candidates running for mayor managed to secure the 40 percent of ballots necessary to win in the first round of municipal elections two weeks ago.

The day is not a legal holiday, unlike the first round at the end of last month, and voting is being restricted to the hours of 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.

In a statement earlier on Sunday, the Interior Ministry released the final audited numbers for voter participation in the first round, held on February 27. Around 3.8 million out of 7.08 million eligible voters, or 53.7 percent, cast ballots — down from 56.9% in 2018 but up from 51% in 2013.

According to Ryan Ghanem, the national election inspector, several attempts at fraud and ballot tampering were caught by polling officials, prompting the ministry to call for increased vigilance.

The ministry did not state where the alleged fraud occurred but during the first round of elections, police detained multiple suspects linked to alleged fraud in Beit Shemesh.