Elections in Israel

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Israel
Image:Coat of arms of Israel.png This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Israel

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Israel elects its national legislature, the Knesset, by proportional representation on a national list basis. The Knesset has 120 members, elected for terms of four years. However, most of the elections in the country's history were not held on their scheduled date but after less than 4 years (only one of the last 8 Knesset assemblies completed its full term). Early elections can be called by a vote of the majority of Knesset members, or by an edict of the President, and normally occur on occasions of political stalemate and inability of the government to get the parliament's support for its policy. Failure to get the annual budget bill approved by the Knesset by March 31st (3 months after the start of the fiscal year) also leads automatically to early elections.

The Israeli electoral system has an electoral threshold of 2%, making it more favourable to minor parties than systems used in other countries. Israel has a multi-party system and generally no one party is able to form a government, requiring the parties to form coalition governments. In 1992, Israel adopted a system of direct election of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister was directly elected separately from the Knesset in 1996, 1999 and 2001. The direct election of the Prime Minister was abandoned after the 2001 election, because it didn't produce more stable governments (the 2001 elections were held less than 2 years after the previous one), and led to further fragmentation of the parliament.

Israel also has a President, but his/her role is essentially a figurehead position, with the real governmental power being in the hands of the Prime Minister.

Every Israeli of age 18 or greater may vote in elections. Any Israeli citizen over 21 may be elected to the Knesset, except holders of several high positions in the civil service and officers or career soldiers (those should resign from their post before the elections), soldiers in compulsory service, and felons who were convicted and sentenced to prison terms exceeding 3 months (until 7 years after their prison term expired). Also, Israelis who have another citizenship should forfeit it to be eligible for elections.

[edit] Israeli elections

Israel legislative election, 2006

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**Summary of the 28 March 2006 Knesset of Israel election results**
Parties	Votes	%	Seats	+/-
Kadima ¹	690,901	22.02%	29	new
Labour-Meimad ²	472,366	15.06%	19	-2
Shas	299,054	9.53%	12	+1
Likud ³	281,996	8.989%	12	-15
Israel Beytenu ⁴	281,880	8.985%	11	+8
National Union - National Religious Party ⁵ National Union Moledet Tkuma Renewed Religious National Zionist party National Religious Party	224,083	7.14%	9	-1
Gil	185,759	5.92%	7	new
United Torah Judaism Agudat Israel Degel HaTorah	147,091	4.69%	6	+1
Meretz-Yachad	118,302	3.77%	5	-1
Ra'am-Ta'al	94,786	3.02%	4	+2
Hadash	86,092	2.74%	3	0
Balad	72,066	2.30%	3	0
Green Party	47,595	1.52%	0	0
Ale Yarok	40,353	1.29%	0	0
Jewish National Front	24,824	0.79%	0	0
Tafnit	18,753	0.60%	0	0
Hetz ⁶	10,113	0.33%	0	new
Shinui ⁷	4,675	0.16%	0	-15
Other parties	36,375	1.16%	0	0
Total	3,137,064	100%	120
Eligible voters: 5,014,622 Total votes cast: 3,186,739 (Turnout 63.6%) Spoiled ballots: 49,675 (1.56% of votes cast) Valid ballots: 3,137,064 Threshold (2%): 62,741 Votes per seat: 24,620
¹ 14 Knesset members joined Kadima in November 2005, 13 of them from Likud. ² One Nation (3 Knesset members) merged with Labour (19 Knesset members) in 2004. ³ Israel Ba-Aliya (2 Knesset members) merged with Likud (38 Knesset members) in 2003, 13 MKs split and joined Kadima in 2005. ⁴ Israel Beytenu (3 Knesset members) split from the National Union (7 Knesset members) in 2003. ⁵ National Religious Party (6 Knesset members) joined the National Union (4 Knesset members after the split ⁴) prior to the election. ⁶ 9 Knesset members split from Shinui and joined Hetz prior to the elections. ⁷ Only 2 Knesset members were left from the original faction after the split⁶ prior to the elections.