Staff from Israel’s embassies around the world cast their ballots this week to officially open voting for the 2026 Knesset elections.
A total of 101 polling stations opened between Wednesday and Friday (throughout Thursday working hours in local time) with 4,800 people eligible to vote.
Diplomats working at the mission in Wellington, New Zealand were first to submit their choices, with polling beginning at 9am Thursday local time, or 9pm Wednesday in the UK.
They were followed by the new Israeli embassy in Fiji, as well as Australia, with voting moving westwards with the daylight before concluding with those working at Israel’s San Francisco consulate at around 4am BST on Friday morning.
The New York consulate saw the busiest polling day, with over 700 workers eligible to vote.
The ballot slips will now be sealed and transported to Israel for counting ahead of the October 27 polling day.
Israel is one of only a handful of countries that do not allow citizens to vote while abroad, with Israeli forced to return home if they wish to cast a ballot.
Absentee voting is only permitted for diplomatic staff, including military attachées and their families.
Aviva Raz Shechter, who leads the election operations team at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said: “Today marks the culmination of a lengthy and meticulous process that began several months ago, during which we prepared to hold elections at Israeli diplomatic missions abroad.”
Dean Livne, acting director-general of the Central Elections Committee, added: “Election Day is a celebration of Israeli democracy, a defining moment when every citizen can exercise their fundamental right to shape the future of the country.
“The Central Elections Committee is fully prepared and is operating all of its most advanced control, auditing and oversight systems to ensure an orderly, secure process and the strict, uncompromising preservation of electoral integrity.”
Meanwhile, early voting for serving IDF soldiers is due to begin next week, with 850 polling stations set up at military bases across the country.
Up to 25 per cent of these will be secure mobile voting booths, allowing soldiers stationed outside of Israel’s borders, including in Gaza and Lebanon, to participate.
Due to “operational considerations,” troops will vote next Thursday, October 20, a week ahead of the general polling date, the army confirmed.
Soldiers will also be allowed to vote at civilian polling stations, but their names will be cross-checked to ensure they have only voted once.
The election process will be overseen by Colonel Vered Ben Yehuda, head of the IDF’s Civilian Employees Employment Centre. The military also guaranteed it would preserve its non-partisan status throughout the process and ensure the integrity and security of the vote.
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