With just a few hours left before polls close on Election Day, Knesset candidates continued to fight for every last vote.
Labor Chairwoman Shelly Yachimovich voiced confidence that the high voter turnout bodes well for her party.
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"It isn't by chance that (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu is stressed," she said late on Tuesday afternoon. "The voter turnout is astounding and the vibes on the ground indicate that a transition is coming."
Yachimovich at campaign HQ (Photo: Avishag Shaar-Yashuv)
She lauded the citizens of Israel, who have long been accused of indifference, for "proving that they want to see a different government and a different prime minister in power."
"Three additional mandates would allow Labor to replace Bibi," she told volunteers, referring to the incumbent prime minister.
Netanyahu made a last call to constituents to go out and vote as he visited the Likud-Beiteinu campaign headquarters in Tel Aviv a short while earlier.
"While in Ashdod, I went from a polling station to a coffee shop, where I encountered much support," he said. "I told the people, 'We need the ballots to rain. Go out and vote and then come back to the coffee shop.'
"The elections have yet to be decided. This is our message. Go out and vote."
PM at Western Wall Tuesday (Photo: AFP)
Naftali Bennett, who chairs the right-wing Habayit Hayehudi party, stopped by a polling station in Petah Tikva, where he was greeted by dozens of young supporters wearing the party's green campaign T-shirts.
"We have reached the decisive hour," he told them. "We want to be a large and influential party, and to unite all of the nation's sectors tonight."
Hatnua leader Tzipi Livni, meanwhile, made a campaign stop at a Holon mall.
"Wake up, a transition is possible," she told shoppers. "The elections are not in Netanyahu's hands."
She further asserted that the Israeli elections "are not a reality show."
"These elections are not about the best-looking candidate but about the one who can best rescue Israel from the emergency it is in," she said.
Moran Azulay and Gilad Morag, who contributed to the report, are Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth correspondents.
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