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✶ Calendar · 26th Knesset · 16 בחשוון 5787

A Tuesday
in Cheshvan.

Israel voted on Tuesday, 27 October 2026. The Central Elections Committee certified the results on 4 November 2026; the 26th Knesset is sworn in on 10 November 2026. Every date below comes from a Basic Law or the Knesset Elections Law, counted from election day (E). As of 4 November 2026.

The 2026 timetable · statutory deadlines and what happened

From the lists
to the oath.

  1. E−102 Fri, 17 July 2026 3 באב 5786 The Knesset's dissolution is formalised; election day stays on 27 October, the date Basic Law: The Knesset sets for a full term
  2. E−49 Tue, 8 September 2026 26 באלול 5786 Candidate lists filed with the Central Elections Committee, by 22:00 Elections Law s.57(i)
  3. E−30 Sun, 27 September 2026 16 בתשרי 5787 Committee approves or refuses each list; disqualification decisions Elections Law ss.63–64
  4. E−23 Sun, 4 October 2026 23 בתשרי 5787 Supreme Court judgments on list and candidate appeals delivered Elections Law s.64
  5. E−12 Thu, 15 October 2026 4 בחשוון 5787 Voting at Israel's diplomatic missions abroad Elections Law s.116H
  6. E−11 Fri, 16 October 2026 5 בחשוון 5787 Surplus-vote agreements filed (one partner per list) Elections Law s.67
  7. E−9 Sun, 18 October 2026 7 בחשוון 5787 Approved lists, with their letters, published in Reshumot Elections Law s.65
  8. E−8 Mon, 19 October 2026 8 בחשוון 5787 Surplus-vote agreements published Elections Law s.67
  9. E−7 Tue, 20 October 2026 9 בחשוון 5787 Polling-station locations announced Elections Law s.68
  10. E−3 Sat, 24 October 2026 13 בחשוון 5787 From the end of Friday: no new poll results until polls close Propaganda Law s.16E(h)
  11. E Tue, 27 October 2026 16 בחשוון 5787 Election day, a rest day: polls open 07:00–22:00 Basic Law: The Knesset s.10; Elections Law s.72
  12. E+8 Wed, 4 November 2026 24 בחשוון 5787 Official results published in Reshumot Basic Law: The Knesset s.11
  13. E+8 Wed, 4 November 2026 – 5 November 2026 24 בחשוון 5787 President Herzog consults every list elected to the 26th Knesset
  14. E+14 Tue, 10 November 2026 30 בחשוון 5787 The new Knesset meets and members are sworn in Basic Law: The Knesset s.12

● marks events of this election; other rows are the law's deadlines for any Knesset election, worked out for 27 October. The government formation that follows has its own clock: the mandate process →

When Israel votes

Four years,
or sooner.

  • Full term

    The third Tuesday of Cheshvan

    The Knesset sits for four years (s.8). Its election falls on the third Tuesday of Cheshvan in the year the term ends — or the first Tuesday if the Hebrew year before was a leap year, with its extra month of Adar (s.9). 2026 was a full term: Cheshvan 5787 began in mid-October and its third Tuesday was 27 October 2026.

    Basic Law: The Knesset ss.8–9
  • Dissolution law

    61 votes, five months

    The Knesset may dissolve itself only by passing a law, with a majority of its members (61); the law must set an election no more than five months later (ss.34–35). That is how the April 2019, September 2019 and November 2022 elections were called.

    Basic Law: The Knesset ss.34–35
  • No budget

    Three months into the year

    If the budget law has not passed three months after the fiscal year begins, the Knesset is treated as having dissolved itself, with an election on the last Tuesday before 90 days have passed (s.36A). The December 2020 dissolution happened this way.

    Basic Law: The Knesset s.36A
  • No government

    When formation fails

    If every attempt to form a government after an election fails, the Knesset is treated as dissolved and a new election follows within about 90 days (Basic Law: The Government s.11). The March 2020 election came this way; in May 2019 the Knesset passed a dissolution law instead.

    Basic Law: The Government s.11 · more →
  • Extension

    Only with 80 votes

    The Knesset may extend its own term only by a law passed by 80 members, and only when special circumstances prevent an election on time (s.9A). In 1973, before this clause existed, a special law moved the election from October to December after the Yom Kippur War.

    Basic Law: The Knesset s.9A

The next regular election

29 October
2030, at the latest.

A full term for the 26th Knesset ends in Cheshvan 5791. The year before, 5790, is a Hebrew leap year, so the election falls on the first Tuesday of the month, not the third: Tuesday, 29 October 2030.

Tuesdays of Cheshvan 5791: 29 October, 5 November, 12 November, 19 November, 26 November. Any of the routes above can bring it forward. Between 2019 and 2022 Israel held five elections in three and a half years. History →

The leap-year rule · Basic Law: The Knesset s.9

  • 2022 Cheshvan 5783; 5782 was a leap year → first Tuesday 1 November 2022
  • 2026 Cheshvan 5787; 5786 was not a leap year → third Tuesday 27 October 2026
  • 2030 Cheshvan 5791; 5790 was a leap year → first Tuesday 29 October 2030

2022's election was set by a dissolution law, which fixed 1 November — also the first Tuesday of Cheshvan 5783.

Election day

A day off,
with buses running.

Polls and exit polls

From Friday night,
no new polls.

From the end of the Friday before polling day until the polls close, no one may broadcast or publish the results of an election survey that was not already public. Older polls may be repeated only with a prominent note that they are out of date. Exit polls — the broadcasters' samples — appear at 22:00, when the last stations close.

This site applies the rule in code (src/lib/israel/rules.ts): during the window it shows no poll at all, and no results or exit polls before 22:00. Prediction-market prices, shown on the parties page, are withheld in the same window. For 2026 the blackout ran from Saturday 24 October, 00:00, to Tuesday 27 October, 22:00.

Try it · Propaganda Law s.16E(h) · Elections Law s.72

Can this poll be published?

Pick a moment, in Israel time, around election day (27 October 2026).

A new opinion poll
Exit polls and results

No by-elections

The next name
on the list.

Israel never holds a by-election. When a seat falls vacant — a member resigns, dies or becomes a minister under the "Norwegian law" — the next candidate on the same list who has not yet been elected takes it. A list's seats stay with the list for the whole term.

Basic Law: The Knesset s.43 · Elections Law s.83

Local government

Mayors and
councils.

Municipal elections are separate, and every resident aged 17 or over may vote in them — including non-citizen residents, such as most Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem. Voters cast two ballots, one for the council list and one for the mayor, who needs 40% to win in the first round. The last round was postponed from 31 October 2023 after the 7 October attacks and held on 27 February 2024, with run-offs on 10 March. The next regular round is due in 2028.

Local Authorities (Elections) Law 5725-1965