In less than 70 days Israelis will go to the polls to decide the next government of Israel. According to a Ynet report, Israel’s voting percentage from the 2015 elections was among the highest in the western world. Over the past three election cycles, there has been a continuous rise in the percentage of Israeli voters who cast a ballot.

Of the eligible voters in Israel during the 2015 election, some 72.3 percent voted. This number put Israel firmly into the top ten countries with the highest voter turnout in the world.

The ranking places Israel ahead of many countries including Norway (70.6%) Germany (69.1%) Canada (62.1%) the United States (55.7%) and many others. Only Holland (77.3%), South Korea (77.9%), Australia (79%), Sweden (82.6%), and Belgium (87%), surpassed Israel in OECD countries who had a higher percentage of voter turnout.

Another interesting statistic posted in the report was that Israel since 1995 is the country with the second shortest average of how often the citizens are called upon to vote in national elections. On average, Israel has held elections every 2.9 years since 1995. This is not unique to Israel as Japan (3.0) Canada (3.1) and Holland (3.2) also have similarly short terms for their governments since that time. The only country with a lower term average for its governments in the western world is Greece with an election every 2.4 years on average.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)