Israelis trickled into polling stations on Tuesday to vote in elections that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to win, AFP reported.

Israelis trickled into polling stations on Tuesday to vote in elections that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to win, AFP reported.

According to a French weekly Israelis will vote for Netanyahu even though he is not liked among them because of his “policies at home and abroad”.

Le Point said in a commentary on the political life of the current Israeli PM that “when deciding on election campaign issues, Netanyahu listens only to his American political advisor Arthur Finkelstein.”

A handful of voters were already queuing up as stations opened at 0500 GMT, and Netanyahu was out early, casting his ballot with his family at a polling station in occupied Al-Quds where the Zionist PM resides.

Netanyahu, after casting his ballot said he hoped for "a flood of votes" for his rightwing joint Likud-Beitenu bloc, Israeli media reported.

The joint Likud-Beitenu list may be confident of leading those competing for the Knesset's 120 seats, but polls show that the two parties will lose around 10 of the seats they hold now, garnering around 32 seats in total, AFP said.

The center-left Labour party is projected to trail in second place with around 17 seats. Its chief, Shelly Yachimovich, is expected to become leader of the opposition after pledging she would not join a Netanyahu government.

Overall, according to final polls, the rightwing-religious bloc, headed by young leader Naftali Bennett, will take between 61 and 67 seats, compared with 53 to 57 for the center-left and Palestinian parties.

Some 5.65 million “Israelis” are eligible to vote in Tuesday's parliamentary elections, as voters will be able to cast ballots at 10,132 polling stations, which are open for 15 hours, with television exit polls due to be broadcast immediately after they close.