OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — "I'm not interested, it's all a lot of nonsense," declares Arik, a worker in Jerusalem's famed Mahane Yehuda market where many shoppers and traders are decidely unimpressed by the choices on offer in Israel's election Tuesday.
The election campaign has been marked by deep apathy and indifference among many of Israel's five million voters even though the outcome is likely to have a profound impact on the future of the Jewish state and Middle East peacemaking.
"Today isn't important," adds fish seller Gadi, 40, wearing a skullcap and surrounded by photographs of leading Sephardic Jews.
Many people in the market, which has suffered three devastating suicide attacks in the last decade and is a bastion of support for the nationalist right-wing, say they are likely to snub acting premier Ehud Olmert.
"Olmert is bad for Jews" say stickers plastered throughout the market's narrow lanes where traders and shoppers voiced fury with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for withdrawing Israelis from the Gaza Strip last year.
There appears to be no love lost for Sharon, whose career came to an abrupt end when he suffered a massive stroke on January 4, leaving him comatose in a Jerusalem hospital ever since.
"As for Olmert, I hope the same thing happens to him that happened to Sharon," snaps headscarf-wearing Nechama, 70.
After a lacklustre campaign, political leaders have been forced to encourage voters to turn out en masse for what has been described as a historic vote.
"This is a very important day but I don't know who I will vote for. I think that Bibi has done good things and I hope he will have a nice surprise," adds Nechama, referring to former premier Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the right-wing Likud Party.
Many market stalls still hang orange ribbons in solidarity with the 8,000 Jewish settlers who were ejected from Gaza last summer and the quarter of a million still living in the occupied West Bank.
Olmert's Kadima Party — founded by Sharon late last year — is widely tipped to win the election and redraw the borders of Israel by withdrawing from parts of the West Bank but retaining the largest settlements.
Sharon set up the party after quitting Likud, fed up with opposition to his Gaza withdrawal that set the precedent for similar pullbacks from the far more Biblically important West Bank.
Esti, 40, sells ethnic clothes from India and Thailand, but is adamant there can be no concessions to the Palestinians and that Olmert's vow of finalising Israel's borders would be disastrous.
"We mustn't give [the Palestinians] any territory, not in Jerusalem or in the West Bank, they can live here, along with their rights and obligations, and if they're not happy they can go and live in another Arab country."
She says she does not like Olmert "because he's corrupted" and will vote for Netanyahu because "Bibi is the most intelligent among the imbeciles."
One of the few left-leaning stall holders is fruit and vegetable seller Roni Avraham, 45, who writes poetry, even about the election.
"I wrote a poem yesterday about those who are undecided, for me the high percentage of undecided voters and abstentions is what's going to decide this election."
"All my life I voted Labour, but today I think I'm going to vote Kadima because [Labour leader Amir] Peretz doesn't have any charisma, I can't see him speaking to [US President George W.] Bush.
"It's not the whole party, but when the head smells bad, the rest must also be bad," says Avraham.
Even Ali, a young Israeli Arab fruit-seller, says he's indifferent about the vote despite the discrimination frequently felt by the country's 20 per cent Arab minority.
"It's not important for me, I'm not going to vote because I don't know who to vote for," he says. In his opinion, even voting for an Arab party would be a waste of time: "It won't change anything, I've had enough of politics."
With strict security in force for polling day, a young heavily made-up policewoman vows everything will go as planned, despite ever-present fears the market could again be targeted by a bombing.
"We're not afraid," she says, declining to give her name. "Today everything will go well, the organisation is good. But I'm not going to vote because I'm not interested and whoever wins it won't change anything.”