Elections Yet Again

In Israel we have become accustomed to having elections very often. This option often prevents progress on significant economic, social and political issues that face the country.
There have been 32 governments in the 64 year history of the state. I cannot recall when there has been a government in which one party was able to gain a majority of seats in parliament in order to govern.

There are 120 seats in the Knesset, Israel's parliament; 61 seats are needed to basically govern effectively. Here votes are cast for parties, not individual candidates. There can be as many as a dozen parties in any given election. This means that most governments are coalition governments. The Prime Minister is usually the leader of the party gaining the most seats. The number of seats each party receives is determined by how many votes a particular party receives in proportion to the total number of people voting.

This year elections will take place on September 4th, just before the Jewish holidays and before American elections in November. It is fairly certain that Mr. Netanyahu, the current Prime Minister, will head the next government. He will probably have a majority of right wing parties, including the religious parties. Those parties with left of center leanings will not be able to muster enough votes to form a successful coalition. A recent poll showed that the there would be 65 seats for the right, 55 for the center-left.

Mr. Netanyahu decided that elections would be good now for a number of reasons. He has no competitors, Israel's economy is creaking, and there are problems passing the budget which would destabilize the government.

The next four months in Israeli politics will be very interesting. There will be party primaries and over the summer the election campaign will take place. Election ads on TV and radio will be limited to specific time slots. The campaign will surely not be as drawn out as the campaign in the US has been this year. As Israeli citizens, Pat and I will unfortunately not be in Israel to vote and there are no provisions for absentee voting. We did vote in one election a number of years ago.

The voting process itself is very interesting. No voting machines. When you step behind the curtain in the voting booth you are greeted by an array of cards with symbols, one for each party. You select a card with the symbol of the party for which you wish to vote,k place it ion the envelope provided, seal the envelope an place it in the voting box. An interesting fact with which to conclude: Here in Israel usually over 80% of the population that is eligible to vote, turns out to vote!