Israeli political parties lavished their efforts to woo voters on the last day before Tuesday's election that remains too close to call.
Some 5.3 million Israelis are eligible to vote for their choices among the 34 parties racing for the 120 parliamentary seats and the next premiership.
Recent polls showed that the Likud party enjoys a small edge over its main rival, the Kadima party, yet some 20 percent of the voters remain undecided and their ballots are likely to make a difference.
Following a string of campaigns highlighting the leadership of their chief, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, senior Kadima members made telephone calls to undecided voters as part of their final efforts to secure as many votes as possible.
Meanwhile, Livni herself, who would become the second woman prime minister in Israel's history should Kadima win the election, traveled to southern Israel, where sporadic rocket fire from the Gaza Strip is still disturbing local communities and many residents are poised to boycott the vote due to dissatisfaction with the situation.
Although placed second by most opinion polls, the 4-year-old centrist party was catching up with the poll leader, the 36-year- old Likud. The last round of surveys released on Friday showed that the gap has narrowed from as many as six seats to two or three seats, with both securing 20-odd slots.
Senior members of the center-right party have been urging potential voters for right-wing parties to concentrate on Likud rather than scatter their votes to different rightist parties, a scenario that would eventually deprive Likud of its advantage over Kadima.
"A big Likud and a clear decision are needed in order for us to govern," its spokesperson stressed in interviews. Sources in the party told local news service that the shifting trend has been halted and voters are moving back to the Likud.
Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, a former prime minister, toured the Golan Heights on Sunday and visited southern Israel on Monday.
Addressing the security concern of southern Israelis, he vowed Sunday that if elected, he would end the Gazan rocket fire for good.
Trailing behind are the ultra-nationalist Israel Beiteinu party and the center-left Labor Party. The former, whose chief Avigdor Lieberman holds a tough stance toward Israeli Arabs, emerged as a dark horse following the recent Israeli operation in Gaza, from which hard-liners seemingly garnered more political gains than others did.
The unexpected rising of Israel Beiteinu is likely to push the Labor down to the fourth place in the next parliament, the lowest in Labor's 41-year-long history. However, Labor chief and Defense Minister Ehud Barak remains a weighty competitor, in light of his experience as army chief, defense minister and prime minister.
The party is trying to bring back their former voters and doing everything to ensure that as many of its supporters arrive at the polling stations. On Sunday evening, Barak also reached out to young voters when he visited a bar in Tel Aviv.
Besides the four leading parties, 30 other groups are also running. In Israel's complex political system, each party needs to win only two percent of votes to enter the parliament.
Although it is too early to tell which party would win out, the new Israeli government is all but certain to move rightward, as recent polls indicated that right-leaning parties would secure a total of some 65 seats, and thus have a better chance to form a majority coalition.
Even if Kadima successfully defends its leadership, many said that Livni, whose failure to cobble together a ruling coalition in September triggered the election, would have to bring rightists, particularly the potential king-maker, Israel Beiteinu, on board in the cabinet-making process.
Following the election, President Shimon Peres will hold consultations with political parties and choose a lawmaker to try to form a government.
The task traditionally goes to the leader of the party winning the most votes, yet could also be assigned to the lawmaker having the best chance to form a coalition.
Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has been serving as a caretaker leader for five months, remains in office until a new government is formed.
(Xinhua News Agency February 10, 2009)