Israel Begins Overseas Voting Ahead of October 27 General Elections

Voting in Israel’s general elections began Thursday at the country’s diplomatic missions abroad, nearly two weeks ahead of the nationwide vote scheduled for Oct. 27.

The Times of Israel reported that the first votes in Israel’s 2026 elections were cast overnight as polling began at Israeli diplomatic missions around the world.

It said voting for diplomatic mission employees abroad and their family members would last about 30 hours, with each embassy opening its polling station during daytime hours according to the local time of its host country.

According to the daily, 101 polling stations will operate across 99 diplomatic missions, allowing approximately 4,800 eligible voters to cast their ballots.

It noted that overseas voting is restricted to diplomatic envoys, diplomatic staff and their family members.

The Israeli Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand, was the first mission to open for voting, with polling beginning at 9 am local time, corresponding to 11 pm (2000GMT) Wednesday in Israel.

Staff at the Israeli Embassy in Fiji followed, with its polling station opening an hour after voting began in New Zealand.

The last missions scheduled to hold voting are the consulates in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the US, where polling will close at 8 pm local time, corresponding to 6 am (0300GMT) Friday in Israel.

After voting concludes, the ballots will be flown to Israel and then sent to the Knesset, the parliament, for counting, according to the daily.

Opinion polls show that neither the camp of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor the Jewish opposition bloc can independently reach the 61 seats, out of 120, required to form a government.

Netanyahu has headed the current government since late December 2022, leading a coalition widely described as the most right-wing in Israel’s history.

Netanyahu also faces charges of corruption, bribery and breach of trust in three cases.
In addition to the domestic corruption trial, Netanyahu has been wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 2024 over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip, where more than 74,000 people have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war since October 2023.