Israeli Elections Today (UPDATED)

Today, Israeli's will go to the polls and vote in parliamentary elections. Polls have shown the newly formed centrist Kadima party running ahead of the more conservative Likud. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the Likud party, now led by Benjamin Netanyahu, makes significant gains in this elections. Consider, via Washington Post:

Israelis will elect a new parliament, and by extension a new prime minister, on Tuesday after a campaign season marked by complacency, disappointment and a sense of betrayal among many voters now searching for new political leadership. The result is that a large number of voters remain undecided, a floating segment that could determine a quarter of the 120-seat parliament, the Knesset. More Israelis than in any past election are expected to sit out the vote.

It will be interesting to see what effect the rise of Hamas and the party finished Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories will have on these elections. There certainly seems to be a great deal of uncertainty among Israeli's right now and that always makes predicting electoral outcomes difficult. We'll be watching this one.

Heres a good graphic that breaks down the major players in the elections as well as the Knesset as a whole.

UPDATE: AP picks up on the significance of these elections. Do not be surprised if Likud gets a larger share of the vote than polls currently show. Here's what I mean:

About 47 percent of the 4.5 million eligible voters had cast ballots by 11 a.m. EST, the Central Elections Committee said. That was about 7 percentage points lower than at the same time in the 2003 national elections.

Analysts have said low turnout could hurt the prospects of Olmert's front-running Kadima Party.

The election was held the same day the Palestinian parliament overwhelming approved the new Hamas Cabinet, setting the stage for the new administration to take office later this week. Lawmakers belonging to the Islamic militant group chanted "God is great!" after the 71-36 vote. Two parliamentarians abstained. [...]

Pollsters predicted that the centrist Kadima, founded in November by Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon, would finish well ahead of the center-left Labor Party and the right-wing Likud. However, an unusually large number of voters said they were undecided, and pollsters said large fluctuations were possible.