On Tuesday, Israelis will vote for the 26th Knesset.
Israel uses the proportional representation system. This means that Israeli voters vote not for an individual representative to Parliament (as with the constituency system in Britain, Canada, and Hungary, for example) but for a political party. A party which receives, say, 15% of the popular vote country-wide receives 15% of seats in the Knesset; a party which receives 40% of the popular vote country-wide receives 40% of seats in the Knesset.
Therefore votes are not regional but sectoral: the entire country constitutes one single electoral unit.
One consequence of this is the plethora of parties which contest every election, and the multitude of parties which invariably end up in the Knesset.
For the first 40 years of the state, the electoral threshold was 1% of the overall vote. In 1988 the threshold was raised to 1.5%, then to 2% in 2003, and finally to 3.25% in 2014, which is today’s threshold.
Since no party in Israeli history has ever received more than 50% of the popular vote, and since the ruling coalition has to number more than half of the Knesset’s 120 seats (i.e. 61 seats or more), every government in Israeli history has been a coalition.
The Basic Law: The Knesset ordains that the final election results must be announced a maximum of nine days after the elections, after which the seats are apportioned among the parties.
Following this, each member of the new Knesset will be invited to meet with President Yitzchak Herzog to recommend his or her choice for Prime Minister.
Within seven days of the elections results being announced, the president will charge one Member of Knesset with the task of forming a government.
This MK then has up to 28 days to put together a coalition, which must comprise more than half the Knesset, meaning 61 or more seats.
If he fails within that time, the president can then grant him up to 14 days extension to complete the task.
If he fails after that extra time, the president then invites another MK (in practice invariably the leader of the other bloc) to form a coalition, who then has 28 days, with no extensions.
If he fails, then an absolute majority of MK’s (61 or more) has the option of deciding on the Prime Minister. This has never happened before, and isn’t likely to happen now or any time in the foreseeable future.
If after this time (approximately 80 days after the elections) there is still no government, then the country goes to new elections 90 days after the deadline expires, which means slightly less than half-a-year after the previous elections.
This is what happened for the first time in history in April 2019, again in September 2019, and again in March 2020.
And now, some brief facts and statistics on Israeli electoral history:
The Knesset (Hebrew: “Gathering" or “Assembly") has 120 seats, modelled after the Knesset ha-Gedolah (“the Great Gathering" or “Great Assembly"), the constituent body which governed Israel from the end of the Biblical period, approximately 515 B.C.E., until the Greek invasion in 333 B.C.E., which was composed of Prophets (in its early years), Talmudic sages, scholars, scribes, and other leaders.
Israeli law grants a government a mandate for 4 years; a government can call an early election any time within that 4-year period.
First elections ever: 25th January 1949, 8 months after independence from the British Empire, while the War of Independence was still raging.
The First Knesset included 117 Jews and 3 Arabs, 108 men and 12 women.
The current (25th) Knesset includes 13 Arabs (including Druzes) and 31 women. There are two Arab women - Iman Khatib-Yassin (Ra’am) and Aida Touma-Souleiman (Hadash).
The first Government of Israel was sworn in on 8th March 1949, six weeks after the elections. The first ruling coalition consisted of 5 parties: Mapai (46 seats), the United Religious Front (16 seats), the Progressive Party (5 seats), the Sefaradim and Eastern Communities (4 seats), and the [Arab] Democratic List of Nazareth (2 seats).
Highest voter turnout ever: 1949 elections (86.9%)
Lowest voter turnout ever: 2006 elections (63.5%)
Number of eligible voters in 1949: 506,567.
Number of eligible voters today: 7,331,981.
Number of votes needed for each seat in 1949: 3,592.
Number of votes needed for each seat today: estimated at approximately 40,000 (depending on how many people vote, how many of those votes are valid, how many go to parties which fail to cross the threshold, etc.).
Biggest party ever in the Knesset: Ma’arach (Labour Alignment), 1969-1974, with 56 seats (46.2% of the popular vote).
Longest gap between elections: 11th Knesset, 23rd July 1984-1st November 1988.
Shorter by just 1 day was the 3rd Knesset, 26th July 1955-3rd November 1959.
Number of parties contesting the elections in 1949: 22, of which 12 won seats in the Knesset.
Highest number of parties ever contesting an election: 40 in the April 2019 elections, of which 11 won seats in the Knesset.
Number of parties contesting the elections this week: 38.
The most well known parties and what is written on their ballot:
מחל Likud, headed by Binyamin Netanyahu
ט Zionut Datit, headed by Bezalel Smotrich, and Zehut, headed by Moshe Feiglin
ג Yahadut HaTorah v’ha’Shabbat (United Torah Judaism) - Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah
זך HaTzibbur HaHaredi, headed by Moti Leitner
שס Shas, Hit’ahdut haSefaradim Shomrei Torah, headed by Arye Deri
אמת HaDemocratim, headed by Yair Golan
ב Otzma Yehudit, headed by Itamar Ben Gvir
ל Yisrael Beyteinu, headed by Avigdor Liberman
די The Reservists and the New Economic Party list, headed by Yoaz Hendel and Yaron Zelekha
ך Amcha Yisrael, headed by Ofer Winter
דרך Yashar! headed by Gadi Eizenkot
רק Be’Yahad, headed by Naftali Bennett
ני Noam L’Yisrael, headed by Avi Maoz