JAPAN: Israeli diplomats in Tokyo among first to vote in Israel's General elections

Record ID: 398246

  • Title: JAPAN: Israeli diplomats in Tokyo among first to vote in Israel's General elections
  • Date: 16th March 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ISRAEL'S AMBASSADOR TO TOKYO ELI COHEN SAYING: "We would like to think that we are connected (to the news in Israel), that we follow the news all the time. (But) we do not really feel the reality that exists (on the ground). The reality of it, the way people are feeling. Here things are different. In Israel people listen to the news every half an hour
  • Embargoed: 31st March 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Reuters ID: LVA6TKJY4M0CUK4KTZWCZ5YAKO5P
  • Story Text: Israeli diplomatic corp and embassy staff in Tokyo were among the first to vote in Israel's general elections on Thursday (March 16).
    The elections in Israel are scheduled for March 28th but overseas diplomatic corp and embassy staff cast their ballots twelve days early so their votes can be sent back home to be tallied along with the rest of the country's.
    In Tokyo, voting began at 10 am local time (0100 gmt) and was set to close at 3 pm (0600 gmt) as only 21 embassy and diplomats were registered to vote. Regular Israeli citizens living overseas are not entitled to cast votes at their embassies.
    Israel's Ambassador to Tokyo Eli Cohen, a former Likud member of Israel's parliament Knesset, told Reuters he hopes these elections will provide Israel with the stability it needs.
    "I hope that the next government of Israel will be very strong, very stable, that they can take decisions that are actually presenting the majority of the people of Israel so they can be safe with what they are doing and at least they can bring more stability," Cohen said.
    Cohen admitted that living overseas sterilises news events back home even for diplomats that need to keep across national developments.
    "Every half an hour you hear news in Israel, in the car, at home and here we don't have it. So in a way it's like sterilised from far away, so its different," Cohen said.
    The nation was thrown into political turmoil following Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke in January which landed him in hospital and in a coma.
    Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took over Sharon's duties and is now expected to win the election at the head of his Kadima party, founded by Sharon when he ditched the right-wing Likud party and seized the political centre-ground.
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