Benjamin Netanyahu is battling to stay in power just days before the start of his corruption trial, as citizens began voting in Israel's third election in under a year which polls predict will end yet another deadlock.

More than 6.4 million people are eligible to cast their ballot across nearly 11,000 polling stations, with 14 special stations created for those quarantined due to exposure to the coronavirus.

Since April, Mr Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has failed twice to form a ruling coalition following two previous inconclusive votes. His chief rival ex-army chief Benny Gantz, who heads the Blue and White party, was also unable to sweep a majority of the 120-seat parliament.

Mr Netanyahu has also been formally indicted in three cases on graft charges he has vehemently and repeatedly denied.

The impasse has meant for the last year Israel has been led by a caretaker government that cannot pass a budget or certain laws bringing the country to a political standstill.

At the polling stations, there was growing voter anger over the stalemate. Citizens said they feared the same inconclusive results as the April and September votes, because the country remains bitterly divided.

“I don’t know what the result will be, but I think it could be just like the last times,” said Nir Amsel, 45, a Blue and White voter from Tel Aviv.

“I worry that people who are undecided will go with Netanyahu because they’re sick of the situation and believe that he has the best chance of forming a ruling coalition.”

A fellow Blue and White voter Noga Ratz, 63, added: "This is already the third elections and our budget has run out and we don’t have a functioning government."

"I want to have an Israel for the next generation so they won’t need to run away to live abroad," she said.

On the other side of the political divide Yasmin Farhadian, 31, a doctor voting Likud, said she felt the desperation to break the deadlock might see many more heading out to vote.

"I think something's different this time. I think [Likud supporters] understand this is it. Now this time, there's the feeling that if people don’t go out to vote, it just won’t happen. That there really will be an opportunity for [the Left] to win".



President Reuven Rivlin meanwhile said he felt "deep shame" for the repeat election as he cast his ballot.

Israel heads to the polls: In pictures Show all 12 1 /12 Israel heads to the polls: In pictures Israel heads to the polls: In pictures People walk past a Blue and White (Kahol Lavan) alliance electoral billboard depicting the faces of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) with text in Hebrew reading "taking care of himself" and of retired Israeli general Benny Gantz (L) with text reading "taking care of Israel", in the central Israeli city of Ramat Gan on March 1, 2020, a day before the country's third election in a year. AFP Israel heads to the polls: In pictures Israeli centrist Blue and White party and ex-military chief Benny Gantz talks to the media next to his wife Revital at a polling station in the city of Rosh Hayin during parliamentary election on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career. AFP via Getty Images Israel heads to the polls: In pictures An Israeli man casts his vote during parliamentary election at a polling station in Jerusalem on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career. AFP via Getty Images Israel heads to the polls: In pictures Ultra-Orthodox Jews vote in the Israeli religious city of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv during parliamentary election on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career. AFP via Getty Images Israel heads to the polls: In pictures An Israeli man and a child cast a ballot at a polling station in Tel Aviv during parliamentary election on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career. AFP via Getty Images Israel heads to the polls: In pictures Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara Netanyahu cast their ballots during the Israeli legislative elections at a polling station in Jerusalem, Monday, March 2, 2020. Israelis have begun voting in the country's unprecedented third election in less than a year. AP Israel heads to the polls: In pictures An Arab Israeli woman votes in the country's parliamentary elections at a polling station in the Arab city of Tamra in northern Israel on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career. AFP via Getty Images Israel heads to the polls: In pictures An Israeli settler casts a vote with his son during elections in the settlement of Alon Shvut, West Bank, Monday, March 2, 2020. AP Israel heads to the polls: In pictures An Israeli employee of the Central Elections Committee wearing a protective suit sits inside a special sterile voting station for people in quarantine on coronavirus suspicion, in Jerusalem, Israel, 02 March 2020. Some 5,600 Israelis who have returned in the last two weeks from countries such as China, Thailand, Singapore, Macau, South Korea, Japan and Italy, have been required to stay in a 14-day isolation by the Israeli Ministry of Health. EPA Israel heads to the polls: In pictures An Israeli employee of the Central Elections Committee wearing a protective suit talks to a voter at a special sterile voting station for people in quarantine on coronavirus suspicion, in Jerusalem, Israel, 02 March 2020. Some 5,600 Israelis who have returned in the last two weeks from countries such as China, Thailand, Singapore, Macau, South Korea, Japan and Italy, have been required to stay in a 14-day isolation by the Israeli Ministry of Health. EPA Israel heads to the polls: In pictures An Arab-Israeli girl casts her mother's ballot for the parliamentary election at a poling station in the Bedouin town of Rahat near the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on March 2, 2020. - Israel held its third election in less than a year seeking to break a grinding political deadlock, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chasing re-election while facing criminal indictment. AFP via Getty Images Israel heads to the polls: In pictures Israelis gather at a polling booth specially erected for the 5,600 voters under quarantine, many of whom visited countries where the coronavirus COVID-19 is prevalent, during parliamentary elections in the northern Israeli city of Haifa on March 2, 2020. - Israelis were voting for a third time in 12 months today, with embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to end the country's political crisis and save his career . AFP via Getty Images

"We don't deserve this. We don't deserve another horrible and filthy campaign like the one that ends today and we don't deserve this endless instability. We deserve a government that will work for us," he added.



Unperturbed Netanyahu cast his vote in Jerusalem focusing on measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus rather than the repeat election saying: “The corona thing is completely under control. Today we’ve taken all the precautions that are necessary, people can go and vote, with complete confidence.”

The final polls released by Israeli media on Friday show both Mr Netanyahu’s Likud and Mr Gantz’s centrist alliance Blue and White neck-and-neck with seat numbers around 33, mirroring the last election in September.

The Channel 13 and 12 polls also predicted neither party would be able to drum up enough support from their political allies to build a parliamentary bloc of 61-seats needed to rule.

Firmly in the middle, according to both polls, is the so-called “kingmaker” Avigdor Lieberman, head of right-wing Yisrael Beitenu party, who is predicted to get around seven seats and so could swing the results, but has refused to join either a Likud-led or Blue and White-led bloc.

Instead, the right-wing nationalist, who cast his ballot in the Israeli settlement of Nokdim in the occupied West Bank on Monday, is pushing for a unity government of both parties.

The idea has failed, however, as neither side can agree on whether Mr Netanyahu should remain prime minister in a rotation deal.

The embattled premier goes on trial 17 March for charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, stemming from accusations he accepted lavish gifts from billionaire friends and promised to promote advantageous legislation for a major newspaper in exchange for favourable coverage.

He has vowed to prove his innocence in court and has dismissed the legal proceedings as a “political witch hunt”.

Blue and White have over the last few elections agreed in part to forming a unity government with Likud but on the condition Mr Netanyahu not be prime minister while he remains on trial, saying he might use his position to seek a form of immunity.

Likud has refused to agree to a deal where Mr Netanyahu does not remain in office, with Likud official Eli Hazan telling The Independent: “If the leader is under persecution, we are all under persecution, we close ranks”.

According to the latest polls, Mr Netanyahu overall remains more popular than Mr Gantz but only marginally.

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Under the shadow of the graft cases, Mr Netanyahu has fought a fierce elections campaign, slamming a Gantz-led government as one that would have to rely on support from Arab parties in Israel, tapping into his right-wing supporters' suspicion of Israel’s 21-percent Arab minority.

Mr Netanyahu has also made repeated promises to immediately annex the occupied West Bank, despite it being illegal under international law and prompting fierce backlash from the Palestinians as well as rights groups.

Likud has widened its net to bring in left field voters, including making promises to Israel’s 150,000-strong Israeli-Ethiopian citizens and those convicted of possessing cannabis.

For the first time since the election 2009, the right-wing party has released an economic manifesto that promises to drastically lower soaring food and housing costs.

In another first, Mr Netanyahu even offered an elections debate, something he has also refused to do since taking office for the second time 11 years ago.

Mr Gantz has meanwhile played up Netanyahu’s legal woes, claiming the premier is leading the country “like a mafioso,” who will do anything to escape the law.

“In the face of the madness, in the face of the lies and the toxicity, we carry hope, “he said at a campaign event in Tel Aviv.

On Monday as he voted in Rosh HaAyin he added: "I’m hopeful that today we can set Israel on a new course.”

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His team told The Independent they had homed in on the 70,000 or so new voters, who are able to cast their ballots for the first time on Monday, with promises on youth-centric issues like climate change.

But this has done little to shift voter positions which remain deeply entrenched with analysts calling the elections yet another referendum on the popularity of Mr Netanyahu.

The results of Monday’s vote are expected to come in overnight after polling stations close at 10pm local time (8pm GMT).

Following this, president Reuven Rivlin will select a candidate he believes has the best chance of building the 61-seat majority to build a government, giving the candidate six weeks to form a coalition.

If he fails, another candidate then has 28 days to form an alternative coalition. If that fails, a fourth round of elections will likely be called.

Mr Netanyahu is hoping to drum up last-minute support to nudge forward his bloc, with hardline Yamima and ultra-orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism.