Israeli elections: high turnout offers encouragement to Netanyahu rivals Binyamin Netanyahu casts his vote in the Israeli elections at a polling station in Jerusalem. Photograph: Uriel Sinai/Xinhua Press/Corbis Israelis voted in unexpectedly large numbers on Tuesday, raising the prospect that the election result may be closer than anticipated. Turnout figures were on course to be the highest in more than a decade after a late surge of enthusiasm at the end of a lacklustre election campaign. Binyamin Netanyahu was still expected to win a second consecutive term as prime minister, although with a smaller mandate. The final distribution of seats won by his Likud-Beiteinu electoral alliance and its rivals on both the extreme right and the centre-left will determine the political character of the next coalition. Negotiations will begin on Wednesday and could last several weeks. A record 55.5% of Israel's 5.6 million eligible voters had cast their ballots by 6pm, with four hours of voting still to go, surprising observers who had predicted a lower turnout than in the last election, in 2009. Sunshine and unusually high temperatures encouraged voter participation. Netanyahu warned his supporters that the high numbers may benefit his opponents. "Voter turnout is high, but not in traditional Likud strongholds," he said mid-afternoon. Go out and vote in order for us to be strong. Tzipi Livni, the leader of the centrist Hatnua party, said she was reminded of the huge social justice protests seen in Israel 18 months ago. Suddenly people are coming out of their homes. Maybe there will be a revolution here," she said. Despite the possibility of last-minute swings - almost one in five voters were undecided before polling stations opened - Likud-Beiteinu was expected to emerge as the biggest party in the next parliament. During the three-month campaign Netanyahu saw support drain towards the ultra-nationalist rightwing Jewish Home party, which vehemently opposes a Palestinian state and advocates the annexation of large chunks of the West Bank. Its leader, the former commando and startup millionaire Naftali Bennett, is likely to be invited to join the next coalition. His contingent of ultra-nationalist MPs, some of whom are hardline settlers, along with a markedly more pro-settler presence in the Likud parliamentary group, is expected to bolster resistance to international pressure to halt the expansion of Israeli colonies in the West Bank. The British foreign secretary, William Hague, said on Tuesday that the prospects of a Palestinian state alongside an Israeli state were receding as a result of settlement expansion. "I hope that whatever Israeli government emerges ... that it will recognise that we are approaching the last chance to bring about such a solution," Hague told parliament. I condemn recent Israeli decisions to expand settlements. I speak regularly to Israeli leaders stressing our profound concern that Israel's settlement policy is losing it the support of the international community and will make a two-state solution impossible. He added: "There is a clock ticking with potentially disastrous consequences for the peace process." Hague said the European Union and the United States were considering "incentives and disincentives" to encourage the parties to return to negotiations. Official election results will not be published until next week, but the president, Shimon Peres, will begin the process of selecting a party leader to assemble a coalition on Wednesday. Israel's electoral system of proportional representation has ensured that no single party has gained an absolute majority since the creation of the state almost 65 years ago. More than 30 parties contested Tuesday's elections. Netanyahu and his family cast their votes five minutes after the polls opened at 7am. He said he hoped to see "a rain of ballots" for his party. "The stronger Likud-Beiteinu is, the easier it will be to lead Israel successfully," he said. He later visited the Western Wall in the Old City, leaving a prayer in the cracks between the ancient stones. I come to the Western Wall every time in order to touch what I have often called the rock of our existence ... I am certain that Israel's citizens will do all within their power to give strength to the people of Israel in its land and country. Bennett and his wife cast their votes in Rana'ana, an affluent suburb of Tel Aviv, and afterwards he sang the Israeli national anthem, Hatikva, outside the polling station.