Election activities in Israel have intensified. On October 27th of this month, Israelis will vote to elect the 26th Knesset (Parliament). This is the sixth general election of the country after 2019. Also, this is the first time in 38 years that Parliament is going to elections after completing its full term. Then it will be decided whether Benjamin Netanyahu will be the Prime Minister or not.

This general election is special not only for Israel but for the entire Middle East. Because this will be the first general election since the violence against Palestinians in Gaza and the Iran-Israel war. Elections in Israel are different from elections in India, America and other countries. Here people do not directly vote for any Prime Ministerial candidate, but vote for the party. Seats are then distributed among the parties. Let us understand in detail what is the election process in Israel and how different is it from India?

How are elections held in Israel?

The Prime Minister is not directly elected in Israel. The people elect the parliament and the leader who gets the majority in the parliament forms the government. There, the parliament called the Knesset has a total of 120 seats, of which 61 MPs are required to form a government. The term of Parliament is four years and there is no term limit for the Prime Minister. At the same time, to reach parliament, a party needs at least 3.25 percent of the total valid votes.

How does voting work?

Voters in Israel vote for a party, not a candidate. Seats are distributed in proportion to the percentage of votes received by the party across the country. That is, the party that gets 30 percent of the votes gets about 30 percent of the seats.

No party has won 61 seats single-handedly in Israel’s electoral history. Being the largest party there is also no guarantee of power. After the results, the parties have 28 days to form a coalition, which can be extended by 14 days. If the support of 61 MPs is not gathered during this period, the country has to go to another election and the current Prime Minister takes over until a new Prime Minister is elected.

A government cannot be formed without a coalition

No coalition in Israel has ever formed a government without practicing religion. The reason is the system there. The votes of the parties that get less than 3.25 percent of the votes in the elections are wasted. So before every election, small parties merge with each other. This time too, the New Hope party of Netanyahu’s coalition is joining the Likud.

The effect of this uncertainty of alliances is seen in history. Israel saw five elections between April 2019 and 2022. Once the governments of Netanyahu and Benny Gantz fell within a year. In 2021, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid formed an eight-party coalition that ended Netanyahu’s 12-year rule, but that government also lasted about a year. Netanyahu returned to power in November 2022.

How does the Bader-Offer Law work?

After the parties get votes, how many seats will each party get in Parliament? This bid-offer is determined by law. It works in two stages.

The first step

1. The votes of the parties that cross the threshold i.e. 3.25 per cent of the votes are added together to arrive at the ‘total relevant votes’. Votes of parties below the threshold are not counted.
2. It is then divided by 120 to find out exactly how many votes a seat has.
3. By dividing each party’s votes by this number, it gives the number of seats. The part after the decimal is not considered in this step.

Second step

For tithing, another step is followed. These are distributed one by one in an ‘auction’ like manner. Each party places its ‘bid’ by dividing its votes by (current seats + 1). The party that bids the highest gets the seat and its bid is reduced afresh. This will continue till all 120 seats are distributed.

Understand with an example…

Suppose, party A gets 1 lakh votes and has 2 seats, then it will be calculated as 1 lakh ÷ 3 i.e. 33,333. At the same time, if party B gets 80 thousand votes and has 1 seat, it will count as 80 thousand ÷ 2 i.e. 40,000. If Party C gets 50 thousand votes and has 1 seat, its account will be 25 thousand.

In this example, Party B has the highest account of 40,000, so it gets the next seat. After this, Party B seats will increase to 2 and 80 thousand ÷ 3 will be calculated for the next seat. Then the accounts of all the parties will be compared again. This process continues till all the seats are distributed.

Who can vote and who can’t?

About 1.2 million Israeli citizens of Jewish Israeli and Palestinian origin have the right to vote in Israel. More than 7.5 million Israelis living in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are eligible to vote as adult citizens, but about 3 million adult Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem do not vote in Israeli government elections, even though Israel controls their borders, movement, and legal status.

Most Palestinians in East Jerusalem have residency rather than Israeli citizenship, so they cannot vote in elections to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, although they can vote in city council elections. There is also no general absentee voting system for Israelis living abroad. One must be in the country to vote, while diplomats and government representatives are allowed to vote at Israeli missions abroad.

This time the role of Arab dominated parties was also discussed. The Election Commission had barred Ram and the Joint List from contesting the elections, but the Supreme Court unanimously lifted the ban on October 2. The support of these parties could be crucial to forming a government, but most leaders of the opposition Jewish-led coalition have refused to go with them.

How different is Israel’s system from India’s?

The biggest difference is that in India, local candidates are voted in, while in Israel, elections are done entirely on party lines. In India’s system, even a party with a few more votes can win big, while in Israel, seats are distributed proportionally, so even smaller parties get a seat.

It is difficult to form and maintain coalitions in Israel and this is the reason why there are frequent elections. More important than the result on October 27 will be who collects the figure of 61 after that. In the current situation, both Netanyahu’s group and the opposition seem far from a majority.