The Election Machinery: How Israelis Choose Leaders

With 31 parties running for the Knesset tomorrow, Israel’s election system will be put to the test. Unlike Congressional elections in the United States, Knesset members represent no constituencies.

The system is based upon proportional representation. Each party or faction presents a national list of 120 candidates. The Knesset, by law must have 120 members. In order to win representation in it, a party must pass the “threshold” which is one percent of the valid votes cast. If two million valid votes are cast, the threshold would be 20,000 votes. Parties that poll less than that number are automatically elminated and the votes cast for them are, in effect, wasted.

After deducting the invalid votes and wasted votes, the remainder is divided by 120 which determines the number of votes required to win one Knesset seat. The voting age in Israel is 18. There will be 2,490,000 eligible voters tomorrow who will cast their ballots at 4,397 polling stations. In past elections, an average of about 80 percent of the electorate has voted, far higher than in the U.S.

The most complicated aspect of Israel’s elections is the so-called “remainder agreements” which determine the disposal of left-over votes that do not add up to one Knesset seat. Several parties, such as Labor and the Independent Liberal Party, have entered such agreements. They provide that the party with the larger “remainder” wins an extra seat it the two remainders total one or more seats.

The Bader-Offer Law, adopted by the Knesset some years ago, provides that the “remainder vote” not accounted for by inter-party agreements are divided among all parties in proportion to their strength. The large parties receive a bigger share than the small ones.

The complex calculation necessary can take a day or two before the final tally is announced. With tomorrow’s elections expected to be very close, the “remainders” could play a crucial role in deciding which of the major parties forms the next government.