ISRAEL: Votes are being counted today in Israeli elections, with early unofficial results indicating strong support for the ruling Kadima party's platform of separating from the Palestinians and imposing Israel's final borders, writes Nuala Haughey in Ofra, West Bank
Television exit polls last night indicated that centre-right Kadima, led by acting prime minister Ehud Olmert, had emerged as expected as the largest single party, with between 29 and 32 seats in the 120-seat parliament.
While this result is slightly below what had been indicated in pre-election polls, if accurate it would allow the party formed just four months ago to lead a ruling coalition of at least 61 members in the 120-seat Knesset.
The leftist Labour Party under former trade unionist Amir Peretz performed particularly strongly, with between 20 and 22 seats, according to the exit polls.
If official results confirm these figures, it would be a resounding validation for Mr Peretz's campaign emphasis on bread-and-butter issues and would place the leftist party in a strong position to join Kadima's ruling coalition.
Binyamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud, which has dominated Israeli politics for three decades, appeared in exit polls to have suffered a major collapse with about 11 seats. One poll indicated that the Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) had taken Likud's place as the leading party of the right and the third-largest party in Israeli politics with 14 seats.
Despite the importance of yesterday's ballot for Israel's future relations with Palestinians and the international community, voter turnout sank to about 60 per cent, the lowest in Israeli general electoral history.
Mr Olmert attracted mainstream Israelis weary of violence and deeply mistrustful of the Palestinians with his plan to unilaterally dismantle some smaller isolated West Bank Jewish settlements while expanding the largest blocs and fixing Israel's permanent borders by 2010.
Mr Olmert's platform followed the vision of Ariel Sharon, his predecessor as prime minister and leader of Kadima, who evacuated settlers from occupied Gaza last summer. Mr Sharon fell into a coma after suffering a massive stroke last January, months after he broke with rebels in his right-wing Likud to form Kadima.
Writing in the mainstream daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth yesterday, Mr Olmert said: "We will determine the line of the security fence and we will make sure that no Jewish settlements will be left on the other side of the fence. Drawing the final borders is our obligation as leaders and as a society."
For the 3,000 residents of the illegal Jewish settlement of Ofra, yesterday was their chance to voice their opposition to Mr Olmert's plan, which would mean the evacuation of their gated community build on occupied land deep inside the West Bank.
Voting was brisk at Ofra's settler council building where Shlomi Barzami (44), a secondary school teacher, cast a ballot for the pro-settler National Union party which opposes any West Bank withdrawals and was at the forefront of heated protests last year against the Gaza evacuation.
"Everything depends on the outcome of this election, whether we stay here or not," said Mr Barzami, a father of seven. "Even though social factors are meaningful, that's money versus life and death. I want to stay at home. I want to keep my home here."
In the upmarket Jerusalem neighbourhood of the German Colony, voters went to the Beit Hinuch secondary school polling station. Raya Amedi (33), a secretary and mother of two, said she used to vote Likud under Mr Sharon but was voting this time for Mr Olmert's Kadima.
"I like Ehud Olmert. I believe in him and I think that what Sharon started, the unilateral withdrawal, is a very good way to go. Olmert has got a good team. He took strong people with him."