"No sense of celebration" as Israel holds third election in a year

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought re-election on Monday under the weight of an imminent corruption trial, with voters turning out in high numbers to try to avoid another deadlock after two inconclusive ballots.
 
Netanyahu's failure to secure a governing majority in the votes in April and September has dimmed the aura of political invincibility once enjoyed by Israel's longest-serving prime minister, who has denied wrongdoing in the three graft cases against him.
 
Three hours before polls were due to close at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT), voter turnout was running at its highest level since 1999.
 
"Today I have no sense of celebration," President Reuven Rivlin said after voting, voicing the frustration across the country after a seemingly never-ending election season. "The feeling I have is not simple, it's even one of shame, when I face you, the citizens of Israel."
 
In the final days of the campaign, opinion polls forecast that neither Netanyahu's right-wing Likud nor the centrist Blue and White party of his main challenger, former armed forces chief Benny Gantz, would win enough votes on their own, or with coalition allies, for a governing majority in parliament.
 
Immediately after voting ends, Israeli media will publish the first exit polls and signal whether the deadlock has been broken. More stalemate could push Israel, where a 2020 budget is still pending, further into economic limbo.
 
Camil Fuchs, a Tel Aviv University statistician conducting an exit poll for Channel 13 TV, indicated that the results could be dramatic.
 
"From the data we have so far .. this is one for the most intriguing, most interesting, and most gripping exit polls - one of the most gripping there have been," he said on Channel 13.
 
Voting in his hometown outside Tel Aviv, Gantz told reporters: "I really hope that in the coming weeks, following the results, we can put Israel on a new path."
 
Netanyahu, who voted in Jerusalem, said: "Go vote. It's a proud day."
 
He said Israel had taken all precautions needed to control the spread of the coronavirus and added: "People can go and vote with complete confidence."
 
By 7 p.m. (1700 GMT), about 56 percent of eligible voters had cast ballots, a figure nearly three percentage points higher than at this stage in the previous election in September.