Israel’s Central Election Committee announced Tuesday afternoon that a total of 1,669,085 ballots have been cast, as of 12:00 p.m.
The vote rate as of midday now stands at 25.4% - down from the levels recorded at the same time in the past two elections.
While the voter turnout level at 10:00 a.m. was in line with recent elections, it fell significantly by noon.
By 10:00 a.m., 974,557 votes had been cast, or 14.8% of all eligible voters; up from 14.5% in the 2020 election, and down slightly from 15.0% in the September 2019 election.
However, in September 2019, the voting rate by 12:00 topped 26.8%, and reached 27.6% in 2020, well above the 25.4% level reached in this Tuesday’s election.
Last year’s election reached a total of 71.5% turnout, despite the slow start in the morning, which has been attributed to the large number of young voters travelling ahead of the election. The 2020 election had the highest voter turnout level since 2015, topping both elections in 2019.