After scandal-wracked campaign, the moment of truth

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s liveblog coverage of the Israeli presidential election.

After a campaign dogged by multiple scandals, with front-running candidates Silvan Shalom and Binyamin Ben-Eliezer dropping out amid police investigations, the Knesset vote is about to kick off.

The five contenders vying to replace the venerable Shimon Peres as Israel’s president, a largely ceremonial position, are former justice Dalia Dorner, Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Dan Shechtman, former MK Dalia Itzik, Hatnua party MK Meir Sheetrit and veteran Likud MK Reuven Rivlin.

You can read TOI political correspondent Haviv Rettig Gur’s predictions for the vote here.

Follow our play-by-play coverage here and on Twitter on @timeosfisrael.