The turnout rate in today's election for Israeli prime minister was down sharply on figures from the last ballot in May 1999 and election officials said if the trend continued it could be a record low.
Right-winger Mr Ariel Sharon is expected to trounce incumbent Mr Ehud Barak in the election, seen as a referendum on peace after more than four months of deadly Israeli-Palestinian violence.
According to central election commission figures, the participation rate at 4.30 pm (1430 GMT) with just five and a half hours to go before the polls closed was 43 per cent, compared with 52 per cent in the previous election.
Just under two million people had voted.
"If the trend is confirmed, the turnout rate in this election will be the lowest registered since the creation of the Jewish state (in 1948)," said the chief statistician of the central electoral commission, Mr Avraham Diskin.
The total turnout in the May 1999 election, which Mr Barak won, was 78.7 per cent.
And in another blow to embattled Mr Barak, the low turnout looked as if it could partially be accounted for by a strong abstention rate within the Israeli Arab community.
Israeli Arabs traditionally vote Labour, and supported Mr Barak en masse in 1999. But they were expected to widely boycott the poll and only trickled into polling stations in the northern town of Nazareth, despite a last-ditch appeal by the Labour party leader.
Meanwhile, the Sharon camp was fearful over the past few days that its candidate's huge lead in opinion would incite his own supporters not to vote.
Eight hours after the polling stations opened, only 1.5 million out of the 4,094,000 Israeli electors had cast their vote. Some 410,000 expatriate Israelis cannot vote unless they return home to do so.
The 7,406 polling stations will remain open until 10:00 pm (2000 GMT).
AFP