With Israel's general election determining whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will stay in power recording its highest early voter turnout in over 50 years, a sense of crisis is mounting within the right-wing governing coalition.

Amid the high turnout, the ruling bloc is going all out to rally its base, while the opposition has warned of the possibility that Prime Minister Netanyahu might refuse to accept the election results.

According to the Israel Central Election Committee on October 27 (local time), the voter turnout for the general election, which began at 7 a.m. that day, was recorded at 31.5% as of noon.

This is the highest figure for the same time of day since the 1973 general election.

As voting enthusiasm intensified, the election commission stated that if there are still lines waiting after the polls close at 10 p.m., it will extend polling station operations.

Prevailing forecasts suggest that the unusually high voter turnout will work to the disadvantage of the current governing coalition led by Prime Minister Netanyahu.

In response, key figures in the ruling bloc have begun urgently urging conservative voters to participate while keeping a check on Arab voters.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir issued a video statement from the Arab city of Kafr Qasim, urging, "If you want Israel to remain a Jewish state against the 'crazy turnout' in Arab society, head to the polling stations."

Prime Minister Netanyahu similarly claimed, "Arab voters are flocking to the polling stations," arguing that the opposing camp is trying to steal the election.

The opposition strongly protested, claiming that such claims by the ruling bloc are preliminary groundwork to reject the results in the event of an election defeat.

The opposition party Yesh Atid, led by former Chief of General Staff Gadi Eizenkot, criticized in a statement, "Netanyahu is in a state of panic and is fabricating theories of election rigging without evidence. This is no coincidence; it is laying the groundwork to contest the election results."

Following this, the Yesh Atid side appealed to supporters to deliver a victory by an overwhelming margin to prevent such far-fetched claims from taking root.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)