Election Law - Questions
and Answers 2003
by: Steven Klein
Israel has changed its electoral system twice in the past decade, returning
to a modified version of its pre-1996 framework. However, those changes
have created confusion about what has changed and what has stayed the
same.
This Q&A has been prepared in order to address various electoral
and constitutional issues related to the elections to be held January
28, 2003, which appear in various lengthy files on Israeli Government
websites.
The laws under discussion:
The Basic Law: The Government of Israel (1992)
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0ksm0
Updated version that was enacted March 7, 2001
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH00hd0
The Basic Law: the Knesset (1958)
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH00h80
(If this link does not work - http://www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/icl/is02000_.html)
See also our links below.
- What kind of political system does Israel have?
- What is the "Government"?
- What are the significant factors going into the
elections?
- Who can vote?
- Who is elected?
- Which parties are running for election and who will
be Prime Minister?
- What happens after the election?
- What has changed since the last election?
- How will this new law affect Israeli voting patterns?
- How long is a term of office?
- What is an Expression of No-Confidence?
- Why did Prime Minister Sharon decide to dissolve
the Knesset?
1. What kind of political system does Israel have?
Israel has a parliamentary system. There is only one chamber, known
in Hebrew as the Knesset (http://www.knesset.gov.il/main/eng/engframe.htm),
which has 120 members. The public elects all 120 members by secret ballot.
A coalition of parties, led by the Prime Minister, forms a Government
to run the country's political affairs as long as it has the confidence
of the Knesset members or until its term of office is ended by agreement
or by a time limit of four years (see #10, below).
2. What is "the Government"?
The Government is the executive authority of the State of Israel. It
is composed of the Prime Minister and other Ministers. Although the Prime
Minister appoints the Ministers, it is the Knesset, which must endorse
their appointment. The number of members of the Government, including
the Prime Minister, cannot be greater than 24, nor fewer than eight.
3. What are the significant factors going into the
elections?
Because Israel does not have a directly elected President or Prime Minister,
it is the make-up of the Knesset that determines who will lead the country.
The President will empower the head of the party receiving the largest
number of seats to form the next Government (see #7, below). Smaller parties
will need to clear a 1.5% threshold of votes in order to qualify for any
seats at all. However, once in they can exact demands from the major parties
in order to help form the coalition.
4. Who can vote?
All Israeli citizens over the age of 18, who are officially resident,
may vote. Recent immigrants who have been resident fewer than three months
are not eligible. Shlichim (emissaries of the State) and government representatives,
who live abroad, vote at their local consulate. There are no absentee
ballots for individuals who are abroad for non-government related reasons.
5. Who is elected?
Voters cast ballots for parties, not individuals. The parties present
their list of 120 candidates, so the Knesset members elected depend on
the proportion that each party receives. The country is considered one
electoral district, so all the votes are divided up proportionally. Thus,
if a party receives 25% of the vote, in theory it would be awarded 30
seats.
However, all votes cast for parties that fail to pass the 1.5% threshold
in order to make the Knesset are thrown out, and the leftover seats are
divided among the remaining parties. Some parties sign sharing agreements
to improve the chance that at least one would receive an extra seat. Hence,
in the above example the party receiving 25% of the vote could end up
with 31 or 32 seats. Sharing agreements have also created a rare phenomenon
when one party receives more seats than another that received more votes
but had signed no sharing agreement!
There will be no separate ballot for the Prime Minister this year (see
#7, below).
6. Which parties are running for election and who will
be Prime Minister?
Some 20 parties have already registered and more are expected before
the early December deadline. One can refer to main parties and access
most of their websites via
http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/actual/elections/2003/parties.html.
The two leading candidates for Prime Minister are current PM Ariel Sharon
of Likud
(http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/100/people/BIOS/sharon.html)
and Haifa Mayor Amram Mitzna of Labor
(http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/100/people/BIOS/mitsna.html).
7. What happens after the election?
The President of Israel, Moshe Katzav, who holds a mainly ceremonial
position and is appointed by the Knesset, will nominate the leader of
the largest faction to form a coalition government numbering at least
61 seats, i.e., a majority of the Knesset. The party leader, who is considered
the Prime Minister Elect despite not having been voted for directly, will
have sixty days to form the government. Once the government is approved,
the Knesset will officially confirm the party leader as Prime Minister
by the Knesset.
8. What has changed since the last election?
In the previous Knesset election, held in May 1999, the public directly
elected the Prime Minister. Before 1996, the electoral system was similar
to the current one, but it had been critiqued as leading to instability.
Smaller parties were perceived as wielding too much bargaining power in
forming coalition governments or bringing them down. So, the Knesset enacted
the Direct Election Law in time for the 1996 elections. However, the new
system was no better and perhaps even worse. The Netanyahu government
lasted less than three years and the Barak government elected in 1999
lasted less than two years. In March 2001 the Knesset voted to repeal
the Direct Election Law.
(see: http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/03/08/News/News.22603.html)
The repeal did add one innovation in hopes of creating more political
stability than had existed prior to 1996. Taking its cue from Germany,
the Knesset added an amendment requiring that who ever intends to pass
a no-confidence motion in the government must first present an alternative
candidate for Prime Minister. In this way, smaller parties can no longer
bring down governments in order to force early elections as they had done
previously (see #9, below). The Prime Minister, however, may still dissolve
the Knesset, in consultation with the President.
9. How will this new law affect Israeli voting patterns?
Prior to the 1996 elections, the Israeli public generally voted for
one of the two main blocs, Likud or Labor, though this trend was already
in decline by 1992. For example, 95 of the 120 seats went to one of these
two parties in 1981, but only 76 did in 1992. Still, this number represented
a majority of the Israeli public. The general wisdom was that voting for
one of the two leading parties constituted the best way to ensure one's
pick for Prime Minister. Ironically, the two parties supported the Direct
Election Law thinking that the public would see the futility in voting
for a smaller party and award even more votes to them.
However, the new system actually diminished the power of the two main
parties. Voters took the opportunity to cast the Prime Ministerial vote
as a referendum on the political process and the Knesset vote based on
social platforms. By 1999, Likud and Labor only commanded 45 seats, barely
one-third, between them, while social issue parties had gained from 22
seats in 1992 to 47 seats in 1999.
It is unclear to what degree the Israeli public has internalized the
new change. However, the latest opinion polls indicate a definite swing
back in the direction of the major parties. One of the leading polls projects
a recovery for the two major parties back to 59 seats and a slide among
the socially oriented parties to 39. These figures suggest that some of
the electorate is returning to its pre-1996 voting patterns, but that
the glory days of dominating the Knesset are over.
10. How long is a term of office?
The Basic Law: Knesset (1958) states, "Section 8: The term of office
of the Knesset shall be four years from the day on which it is elected.
Section 9: The elections to the Knesset shall take place on the third
Tuesday of the month of Cheshvan (October/November) in the year in which
the tenure of the outgoing Knesset ends." Thus, while the term lasts
four years, the gap between elections is longer. During the period between
the end of the government's term and elections, a caretaker government
is officially in charge.
However, it is a common trend in Western parliamentary democracies that
governments have fallen during the year preceding an election year. Such
has been the case in Israel in 1977, 1984, 1999, and 2002. These governments
have fallen because either the Prime Minister felt that he could not maintain
a stable government, needed a new mandate from the electorate, or was
voted out of office by an expression of "no-confidence".
11. What is an Expression of No-Confidence?
The Knesset may, by vote of a majority of its members, i.e. sixty-one
members, can pass a no-confidence motion against the government. With
the German amendment to the Government Law, the majority needs to present
an alternative candidate. If that candidate cannot form a coalition government,
the Knesset would dissolve itself and go to early elections.
If no budget law is passed within three months after the beginning of
the fiscal year, the expiration of that period will also be considered
a decision by the Knesset to dissolve itself before the end of its term
of office.
12. Why did Prime Minister Sharon decide to dissolve
the Knesset?
When Sharon formed his government in 2001, he set guidelines for a broad
based coalition including the left-wing Labor party and the far-right
Ichud Leumi-Yisrael Beteinu faction. The latter dropped out in protest
of Sharon's policies. When Labor withdrew in the fall of 2002, he tried
to form a right-wing coalition. However, this time Ichud Leumi demanded
that Sharon change the government guidelines to reflect a more hard line
stance. Sharon refused and preferred to go to early elections.
Election Links
Background to 2003 Elections [MFA]
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0mpg0
Ha'aretz Newspaper coverage: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?
itemNo=229108&contrassID=3 &subContrassID=0
&sbSubContrassID=0
Jerusalem Post coverage:
http://info.jpost.com/C002/Supplements/Elections2003/
Y-net coverage (Hebrew):
http://www.ynet.co.il/home/0,7340,L-1863,00.html
Politics Now coverage (Hebrew):
http://www.politicsnow.co.il/ele2003.html
WUJS background:
http://www.wujs.org.il/activist/israel/politics.shtml
About the Knesset:
http://www.knesset.gov.il/main/eng/engframe.htm
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