Voting in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Sderot, analyst

(10 Feb 2009) SHOTLIST Jerusalem 1. Wide of street, bus driving by 2. Ultra-Orthodox Jews walking in street with umbrellas 3. Ultra-Orthodox Jews walking into polling station 4. Ultra-Orthodox voter waiting at entrance to polling station 5. Ultra-Orthodox voter waiting to get into polling station, pan to soldiers guarding station 6. Various of ultra-Orthodox Jews voting Jerusalem 7. SOUNDBITE (English) Hedva Almog, Jerusalem resident: "I am happy. This day will be very important to us and I hope that what I want to vote (who I vote for) will win." 8. Woman entering polling station 9. Exterior of polling station 10. Wide interior of polling station 11. Various of voters casting their ballots Sderot, southern Israel 12. Poster of Kadima Party candidate Tzipi Livni hung in street 13. Campaign poster of Ehud Barak, Israeli defence Minister and Labor Party leader 14. Man waiting to vote 15. Tilt-up of voting booth 16. Various of election official registering Sderot resident 17. Mid shot of election officials 18. Man casting his ballot 19. SOUNDBITE (Hebrew) Yaacov Dahan, Sderot resident: "We need to elect someone who will bring quiet here to the town of Sderot. Enough with the past eight years we went through (referring to the Palestinian rockets hitting Sderot), and who (the elected Prime Minister) will also bring peace." 20. People waiting in line to vote at polling station 21. Wide of street scene with Israeli flags East Jerusalem 22. Wide shot of skyline 23. Election posters outside polling station 24. Arab Israeli voter casting her ballot 25. Cutaway of picture on wall 26. Arab Israeli voter casting her ballot Tel Aviv 27. Street scene Tel Aviv 28. Voter presenting identification at Ysgav School polling station; push in 29. Voter marking ballot in booth 30. Man casting ballot Tel Aviv 31. Establishing shot of political scientist, Doctor Tamir Sheafer 32. SOUNDBITE (English) Doctor Tamir Sheafer, Political scientist: "The gap between the two leading parties happens to be very very narrow at the last day and actually we don't know what the result would be. We can't even predict because we didn't have polls here in the last three days." 33. Sheafer speaking on mobile phone STORYLINE Israelis went to the polls on Tuesday in pivotal general elections which will determine who will lead the country's next fragmented government, with a lurch to the right predicted. Recent polls show a tight race between the centrist Kadima and right wing Likud, with the centre-left Labor and extremist Yisrael Beitenu also expected to collect enough seats to have a potential say in future coalition building. Most of the country's 9,263 polling stations opened as scheduled at 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT). Polls are open in all but the smallest communities until 10 p.m. local time (2000 GMT). Voters in Jerusalem and other parts of Israel braved pouring rain and strong winds on Tuesday morning, expected to keep numbers low. Voter turnout in the last election in 2006 was 63.2 percent, the lowest in Israel's history. Umbrellas were the order of the day for many Orthodox Jewish residents of Jerusalem. Generally, the voting patterns of Orthodox Jews are sectoral, with each zone voting for their own preferred party, and not for the larger, more mainstream parties. This sectoral voting often gives religious parties a strong position in the Israeli parliament, which in the past they have used as leverage in coalition negotiations. For months, opinion polls had predicted a decisive Likud Party victory. Meanwhile, many Arab Israelis cast their votes in East Jerusalem. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...