JERUSALEM, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) --Israelis went to the polls Tuesday morning in the country's early parliamentary elections, with opinion polls predicting an easy win for a right-wing union led by incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Voting started at 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) Tuesday at 10,132 polling stations across the country, and is due to end at 10 p.m. According to the Central Election Committee, there are around 5.66 million Israeli citizens eligible to vote in this election.
A total of 32 parties are running for the 120 seats in the one-chamber parliament, the Knesset. The Likud-Beytenu union led by Netanyahu and former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is expected to get around 32 seats, making it the largest bloc in the new parliament, according to final opinion polls published this weekend.
More than 20,000 policemen, border guards and volunteers will be deployed across polling stations, national police spokesperson Mickey Rosenfeld told Xinhua on Monday.
Voter turnout in the 2009 elections stood at 65.2 percent. According to political analysts, there will be a similar turnout at Tuesday's elections, perhaps a bit higher.
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