Page 18 - HaMizrachi #7BackgroundwithJIF-Purim

THE ISRAELI ELECTIONS:

Everything You Need to Know

By Shoshana Kordova all the parties are laid out, each party’s
members having already been chosen
hen Israelis go to the polls by the party. Voters pick a ballot, place
on April 9, they will be it in the envelope, step out from behind
W picking a party, not a prime the screen and slide the sealed envelope
minister. So how exactly will Israel’s through a slit in the lid of the blue ballot
next leader get into office? Here’s the box in the room.
rundown...
For the second election running, the
Stage 1: Election Day electoral threshold will be 3.25%,
meaning that a party needs to win at
Every Israeli citizen 18 or over who least 3.25% of all votes – representing
is located in Israel on Election Day some four Knesset seats – to secure
is eligible to vote for one registered parliamentary representation.
political party. Any Israeli citizen aged
21 or over has the right to stand as a The higher threshold is the reason the
candidate. so-called Arab parties – United Arab
List-Ta’al, Balad and the Arab-Jewish
A party must be legally registered with Hadash – all run together under the
the party registrar to run in the election, Joint List ticket. It is also why small
or an alliance of factions can decide to parties may join up with other factions
run together. closer to Election Day, in a bid to give
themselves a better chance of passing the
Israel did hold two direct votes for prime
minister in 1996 and 1999 (Benjamin electoral threshold.
Netanyahu beat Shimon Peres in the first The distribution of Knesset seats
but lost to Ehud Barak in the second), to each party passing the threshold
but has since reverted back to the old is determined by proportional
electoral process in which citizens representation: all valid votes are
vote for one party. Voter location divided by 120 (the number of seats in
doesn’t matter, since the whole country Knesset), to determine how many votes
functions as one district and voters cast entitle a party to a single seat.
their ballot for a party, not a particular
candidate. The number of Knesset seats allotted to
each party is a result of the total votes it
Despite this being Startup Nation, receives divided by the number of votes
the actual voting process is very low- for a single seat. Since this allocation
tech. Voters present their national does not generally fill all the seats in
identification cards at their assigned the Knesset (some of the votes will
polling stations and are given a blue have gone to parties that don’t make it
envelope for the ballot. They step into the parliament), the party or party
behind a screen, where the ballots for alliance with the most surplus votes

18