The Israeli Election on YouTube

Today is Election Day in Israel and throughout the campaign season Israeli voters have been tracking the candidates on YouTube.

In December, YouTube launched an online elections platform, which allowed citizens to record and upload their questions for the three candidates -- Tsipi Livney, Ehud Barak and Benyamin Netanyahu. In all, 258 videos were submitted for consideration.

Following the model of the CNN/YouTube debates, the YouTube community voted and the best video questions were posed to the candidates during a live broadcast on Channel 2 News. The live debate was among the top 10 most-viewed shows of the week and Haaretz newspaper described it as "the hottest moment of this (Israeli) elections campaign."

If you're voting today and still undecided, here are some highlights from the broadcast:

Israeli Citizens Ask Questions of Prime Minister Candidates

YouTube's influence in politics hasn't been just an American phenomenon. Around the world, voters have been using YouTube to speak up on political issues. We've done televised election programming in Spain (youtube.com/elecciones08), the UK (youtube.com/londonmayor08), not to mention Greece and Poland. And now, for the first time in the history of Israel, the public has had the opportunity to submit questions directly to the candidates for Prime Minister - which will be aired in live public forums on Channel 2 news, Israel's most popular news channel. So far, over 250 video questions have been submitted.

Here are a few examples:



Now, Israeli citizens get to help determine which quesitons get asked of the three candidates, Tsipi Livni, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak. Go to http://www.YouTube.co.il/Elections09 to vote on the questions you think are best.

At the end of this week, the winning questions will be announced and would later on be broadcast live on channel 2 News and answered by the candidates. Furthermore, the winners will be invited to the studios to actually attend the candidates' interviews.

Naturally, the current events in Israel have brought the public to a new level of awareness and involvement over who will lead the country during this difficult time. We encourage you to go and vote for questions at http://www.YouTube.co.il/Elections09