Stormy Israel Votes In Tight Election

Israelis vote by party, and parliament seats are allocated by proportional representation to national party lists.

Israelis voted on Tuesday in a tightly contested election between right-wing leader Benjamin Netanyahu and the centrist Kadima party of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Security is the paramount issue following the January war with Hamas in Gaza, and given fears of an ascendant Iran and its regional allies. The election was not billed as a referendum on whether to restart peace talks with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu, the former prime minister who staked out his ground as a hawk, was at one stage a clear frontrunner in opinion polls but has lost ground to Livni.

The far-right party of Avigdor Lieberman has also prospered in a campaign overshadowed by the war in Gaza, in which 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed. "Tonight you will see a majority of the people taking us on a different path," Netanyahu said while racing round the country to see supporters.

Livni led peace talks with the Palestinians on a two-state solution, talks which stalled last year but which U.S. President Barack Obama wants to resume. Likud party leader Netanyahu has been cooler on ceding occupied territory to Palestinians.

One TV channel cited a poll showing that 30 percent of voters were still undecided on the eve of the ballot.

The weather was grim, with storms sweeping up from the coast to the Jerusalem heights, but by 8 p.m. fears of a record low turnout had been put to rest. Some 60 percent of voters had cast ballots, more than in the 2006 election, said media reports.

Exit poll projections of the result were due at 2000 GMT.

Livni was also charged-up by the race.

"Rain or no rain, cold or hot, go to the polling booth and decide who to vote for, not out of despair but out of hope," she told voters at one of several stops during the day. "It's a decision on your future. It's not something theoretical."

TRACK RECORDS

Livni, 50, who once worked for the Mossad spy agency, would be the first female premier since Golda Meir in the 1970s.

Netanyahu, 59, a former finance minister, and fourth-placed Labour Party leader Ehud Barak, the 66-year-old ex-general and now defence minister, both served previously as prime ministers.

Ultra-rightist Lieberman, a potential spoiler for Netanyahu, has soared in the polls. His Yisrael Beiteinu party pledges to get tougher with Palestinians, as well as kindred Israeli Arabs, and to keep Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

"Rain is a blessing," he said. "Israel needs a lot of rain. I guess our people will come out and vote even if there's a hurricane."

In an incident highlighting rising tensions between Jews and Arabs, police moved quickly to prevent a clash between visiting ultranationalist lawmaker Arieh Eldad and residents of Um al-Fahm, whisking him out of the hub Arab town.

But there was unusual quiet down south, which has seen sporadic rocket attacks from neighbouring Gaza, and retaliatory Israeli air strikes, despite a ceasefire called on Jan. 18.

Barak has enjoyed a rise in popularity since the Gaza war and some supporters believed he would surprise the country. But polls indicated Labour could slump to its worst showing.

Barak also toured voting booths, reminding Israelis that Labour was the only genuine left-wing party in the race. In a last-gasp appeal on Israeli television, he described himself as the "responsible adult" best suited to run a jittery country.

Israelis vote by party, and parliament seats are allocated by proportional representation to national party lists. The party with most votes is usually called to form the government.

No party has any chance of securing an absolute majority on its own and it may take weeks to agree a new coalition.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the outgoing leader who quit in a corruption probe in September, will stay on as caretaker premier until a new cabinet is sworn in.

Israel closed the doors to the occupied West Bank, denying Palestinians entry to the country for the duration of the election. Some 16,000 police were deployed nationwide for extra security.

In Gaza, Palestinians said they were sure the election would make no difference to their lives, whoever won. In the West Bank there was no sign of any strong hope that the right result would quickly revive the peace process.