Israel’s Central Elections Committee decided on Tuesday that there was no justification for extending voting hours in the elections for the 26th Knesset.
The committee’s presidium met on Tuesday evening to consider a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party to extend voting hours past 10 p.m.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party and the haredi Shas party joined the request, they told JNS.
Otzma Yehudit cited heavy crowding and unusually long wait times at polling stations across the Jewish state.
The Central Elections Committee said high nationwide turnout “across all sectors of society” showed “strong public engagement in the democratic process.”
The committee said every voter who reaches a polling station by its closing time will be able to vote.
