JERUSALEM: Israeli politicians made their final pitches for votes Monday on the eve of an election that will decide the fate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after six years in office.

With polling stations due to open at 0500 GMT on Tuesday, Israel’s political elite fanned out to pin down wavering voters ahead of an election which experts agree is likely to be a referendum on the Netanyahu years.

Netanyahu has based his campaign solidly on security issues, notably the Iranian nuclear threat, giving short shrift to the economic issues that have played a central role in campaigning by the center-left Zionist Union and several other parties.

Final opinion polls published late last week put the Zionist Union, headed by opposition leader Isaac Herzog and former peace negotiator Tzipi Livni, ahead with 25-26 seats with Netanyahu’s Likud taking 20-22 in the 120-seat Knesset.

Sunday saw Netanyahu make overtures to the center-right Kulanu party, which is largely expected to play the role of kingmaker, offering the finance portfolio to its leader Moshe Kahlon who dismissed this as “spin.”

Netanyahu later addressed a mass rightwing rally in Tel Aviv, attended by around 20,000 people, and warned again of the “real danger” to Israel’s security and to the status of Jerusalem if the Zionist Union were elected.