Summary:
Israel has an
electoral system based on nation-wide proportional
representation, and the number of seats which every list
receives in the Knesset is proportional to the number of
voters who voted for it. The only limitation is the 1.5%
qualifying threshold. In other words, a party must receive at
least 1.5% of the votes in order to be elected. According to
this system, the voters vote for a party list, and not for a
particular person on the list. Since the institution of the
primaries system in some of the parties, these parties
directly elect their candidates for the Knesset. Some of the
parties elect their candidates via the party's institutions.
In the ultra-religious parties their spiritual leaders appoint
the candidates. The Knesset elections take place once every
four years, but the Knesset or the Prime Minister can decide
to hold early elections, and under certain circumstances can
serve for more than four years. |
The Electoral System
Israel
has an electoral system based on nation-wide proportional
representation. In other words, the number of seats that each list
receives in the Knesset - the House of Representatives - is
proportional to the number of votes it received. Unlike most of the
Western parliamentary democracies, the system in Israel is followed
in an extreme manner, and the only limitation on a list which
participated in the elections being elected is that it should pass
the qualifying threshold, which is currently 1.5% (until the
elections to the 13th Knesset the qualifying threshold was only 1%).
Historical Background
The State of Israel
inherited the rigid system of proportional representation from the
political system of the yishuv (the organized Jewish community) in
mandatory times. This system was based on the zeal with which the
various political parties - in which ideology and personalities
played a major role - fought to preserve their independence. The
justification given for the large number of parties resulting from
the system was, that in a period in which major, far-reaching and
rapid changes were still taking place in the population make-up as a
result of immigration, it was important to enable maximal
representation for various groups and opinions.
The Legal Basis for the System
The electoral
system is based primarily on two laws: the Basic
Law: the Knesset of 1958 and the Knesset Elections Law (combined
version) of 1969. Since the Parties Law of 1992 was passed, only
registered parties can present a list of candidates and participate
in the elections.
The Principles Upon Which the Electoral System is
Based
The general framework for the elections was
laid down in article 4 of the Basic Law: The Knesset, and
according to it the Knesset is to be elected in general,
country-wide, direct, equal, secret and proportional elections. This
article can only be amended by a vote of a majority of the Knesset
members.
The principle of the generality of the elections ensures the
active right of every Israeli citizen, who is at least 18 years old,
to vote and the right of every Israeli citizen, who is at least 21
years old, to be elected. Even though the Basic Law: The
Knesset gave the legislator the power to deny the right to vote
to anyone as it may see fit, the Knesset has never made use of this
power. Those holding certain official positions, such as the President
of the State, the State
Comptroller, judges or dayanim, career officers, and
senior civil servants, may not stand for election to the Knesset.
However they can contend if they resign from their post 100 days or
6 months before the elections, depending on the public position, as
the law specifies.
The principle of country-wide elections states that Israel is a
single electoral district insofar as the distribution of Knesset
seats is concerned. Direct elections mean that the voter elects the
Knesset directly, rather than an electoral college (as is the case
in the election of the President in the United States). Equal
elections apply to equality amongst the votes given, and the Supreme
Court laid down that the principle of equality relates to
equality of opportunities for all the lists participating in the
elections as well.
The principle of secrecy ensures fairness in the elections and
aspires to prevent the placing of effective pressure on voters,
since no one has any way of knowing how they actually voted. The
principle of proportionality manifests itself in that all the lists,
which get past the qualifying threshold, are represented in the
Knesset by a number of members which is proportional to their
electoral strength.
The Frequency of Elections
The Knesset
elections are supposed to take place every four years. The Knesset
can decide, by an ordinary majority, to dissolve itself and call for
early elections. Under the direct vote for Prime Minister system,
the Prime Minister could notify the President of early elections.
After the abolishment of that system, the Prime Minister can
recommend to the President to call for early elections, but the
Knesset can block that initiative. The elections to the second
(1951), fifth
(1961), tenth
(1981), eleventh
(1984), thirteenth
(1992) and fourteenth
(1996) Knessets were all held before the due date by the Knesset's
initiative. The elections for the sixteenth Knesset were brought
forward by the initiative of the Prime Minister.
The Knesset can also decide, by a special majority, to prolong
its term beyond four years. This happened in the cases of the third,
fifth,
seventh,
ninth,
and eleventh
Knessets, each of which served for more than four years. The
elections to the eighth
Knesset (1973) were delayed because of the Yom Kippur War. In either
case of delayed or early elections, the newly formed Knesset is
still meant to serve a full four-year term from the date of
elections as determined by the law, regardless of the election date.
Who Can Participate in Elections?
The
contest in the elections is among lists of candidates. Since the
Parties Law was passed in 1992, only a party, which has been legally
registered with the Party Registrar, or an alignment of two or more
registered parties, which have decided to run in the elections
together, can present a list of candidates and participate in the
elections (for example, in the elections for the fifteenth Knesset,
the list "One Israel" was composed of three parties; Labor, Gesher
and Meimad). A party can informally add to its list bodies or
personalities that are not members of the party and that are not
registered themselves as a party (for example, in the elections for
the fifteenth Knesset, the Unified Arab List included contenders
from the Democratic Arab Party, a registered party, and individuals
from the Islamic Movement, a non-registered party). The following
lists may not run in the elections: A list which acts directly or
indirectly against the existence of the State of Israel as the state
of the Jewish people or against its democratic nature; a list which
incites racism; a list which supports the armed struggle of an enemy
state or a terrorist organization against the State of Israel.
The Distribution of Seats Among the
Lists
The lists that have passed the qualifying
threshold receive a number of Knesset seats which is propotional to
their electoral strength. This is done by the division of valid
votes given to the lists which passed the qualifying threshold, by
120, in order to determine how many votes entitle a list to a single
seat. In the elections to the second and seventh Knessets the excess
votes (the votes received by a list which passed the qualifying
threshold, but are not sufficient for a whole seat) were distributed
to those lists which had the largest number of excess votes (the
Hare method). In the elections to the first Knesset, and since the
elections to the eighth, the excess votes are distributed to the
lists with the largest number of voters per seat - a method known in
the world as Hagenbach-Bischoff (de-Hondt), and is known in Israel
as the Bader-Ofer method - named after MKs Yohanan Bader (Gahal) and
Avraham Ofer (Alignment) who proposed its adoption. Two lists can
reach an agreement regarding the distribution of excess votes
between them before the elections.
Who is Elected to the Knesset?
The
candidates of any given list are elected to the Knesset on the basis
of the order in which they appear on it. If a certain party received
sufficient votes for 10 seats, the first 10 candidates on its list
will enter the Knesset. If a Knesset member passes away or resigns
his seat in the Knesset for whatever reason, the next on the list
will replace him/her. |
