About 26.5 percent of eligible Israeli voters cast ballots within the first five hours of Tuesday's Knesset (parliament) elections, according to data released by the country's official electoral commission.
Israelis on Tuesday flocked to polling stations to elect new Knesset members amid a dead heat between the incumbent Likud party and the center-left Zionist Union alliance.
The electoral commission has put the number of eligible voters for the 20th Knesset vote at 5,881,697, who will cast ballots at 10,372 polling stations nationwide.
Twenty-five lists are competing in the election, but opinion polls suggest that only 11 of these will likely exceed the 3.25-percent electoral threshold.
According to Israeli law, Election Day is an official holiday, on which polling stations open at 7am and close at 10pm.
According to the commission, official election results will be announced on Thursday.
