The Knesset’s Research and Information Center published today (Sunday) a special document in preparation for the fifth elections to be held next Tuesday, which contains the answers to the most burning questions.
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When and why are elections held?
According to the Basic Law: The Knesset, the term of office of the Knesset is four years from the date of election, however, in the following cases, elections will be held outside of their normal time:
1. The Knesset decided by law to dissolve before the end of its term of office.
2. The Knesset was dissolved due to the failure to pass the budget law within three months of the beginning of the fiscal year.
3. The Prime Minister dissolved the Knesset because most of its members opposed the government and no alternative government was formed.
4. The Knesset disbanded due to failure to form a new government.
5. A motion of no confidence was passed, and the proposed candidate failed to form a government.
Are there other countries that have a similar sequence of elections?
In an examination conducted on this subject in old democracies, it was found that in the last decade and a half in the following countries, two parliamentary elections were held within two years: Argentina, Austria, Canada, Greece, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Great Britain.
The only case in which two election sets were held during the same year, similar to the two election sets held in Israel in 2019, happened in Spain, also in 2019. The two election sets in Spain were part of the sequence of elections that can be said to be the most similar to the current sequence of elections taking place in Israel: four sets Elections in the four years 2015−2019.
Polling stations (Photo: Avshalom Sassooni)Parliamentary instability has also prevailed in Britain in recent years, and its citizens went to the polls three times between 2015-2019. In certain countries, there is a frequent change of governments, but this does not necessarily lead to the dissolution of the parliament in ordinary polling stations, but coalitions are formed within the current parliament.
Who is eligible to be elected?
Israeli citizens aged 21 or older, with the exception of senior public sector officials, for example: chief rabbis, judges, the State Comptroller, the Chief of Staff, the Governor of the Bank of Israel and civil servants and senior officers.
What is the difference between a party, a list and a faction?
party
According to the Law on Parties, 1992-5552, a party is a group of people who have come together to legally promote political or social goals, and to have them represented in the Knesset by elected officials.
list
According to the Knesset Elections Law, 1969-5779, the parties submit lists of candidates to the Knesset and the voting in the elections is for the lists. A list of candidates can be submitted by one party or by several parties, then it is called a joint list of candidates.
Voters for the 24th Knesset at a polling station in Jerusalem (Photo: Mark Israel Salem)faction
A list of candidates elected to the Knesset becomes a faction in the Knesset, and the number of its members is equal to the number of mandates it received in the elections. The party or parties that make it up continue to exist as parties outside the Knesset.
What is the blocking percentage?
The blocking percentage is a certain proportion of all the kosher votes that a list must receive in order to enter the Knesset.
Who finances the election campaign of the parties?
The main sources of income for the parties during the election period are public funding (from the state treasury) and donations in limited amounts. The amounts that the parties receive are calculated according to the number of financing units they are entitled to receive and according to the amount of the financing unit, which currently stands at 6.1 million NIS.
The Election Committee (Photo: Yonatan Zindel, Flash 90)How was the sample taken on election day?
The statistical model according to which the sample was compiled is based on asking participants about their vote near selected polling stations throughout the country where they voted, which should yield results identical to the true results. When the voters leave the real ballots, they are asked to repeat their vote on the sample ballots in the same way as their vote on the real ballots.
Participation in the polling sample is completely confidential. The statistical model translates the sample results into a nationwide forecast. The sample published at 22:00 is based on results collected earlier than the closing date of the polls, to allow time for the data to be processed.
The publication of the results of the sample at the end of the election day receives a lot of interest for two main reasons, the main one of which is simple: the great curiosity about the election results. The media publicizing the sample can satisfy the great public interest even before the true results are available. To a certain extent, the forecast is also important for the parties and their candidates in the elections, and it has a kind of opening signal for conducting contacts to form a coalition even before the publication of the true results.