Israel may become the only country where a voter could legally cast three ballots in a national election.
That scenario could occur if the interim recommendations of an interparty committee on electoral reform are adopted.
Its chairman, Communications Minister Gad Ya’acobi of Labor, is optimistic. He said last weekend that there is “a very good chance” that the next Knesset elections, nearly four years off, will be conducted under the new system proposed by his panel.
The committee, a joint undertaking of the Labor Party and Likud, was set up following the November Knesset elections to overhaul the electoral system.
Since the founding of the state 41 years ago, elections have been based on proportional representation, which has prevented any single party from gaining enough Knesset seats to govern without partners.
The committee has agreed on a hybrid system combining direct election of Knesset members with proportional representation.
It is asking for legislation that would divide the country into 20 constituencies, each of which would send three representatives to the Knesset. Two would be elected directly.
The others, making up half the 120-member Knesset, would be selected on the basis of their slot on party lists, which is how the present system works.
Each voter would vote three times — once for a party list and twice for two local candidates, regardless of party.
The threshold for entry into the Knesset would be raised from 1 percent to 4 percent of the total vote cast, thereby eliminating the splinter parties which proliferate. There are 15 parties in the present Knesset.
The plan has won enthusiastic endorsement from Tel Aviv University Law School Professor Uriel Reichman, chairman of the public lobbying campaign for electoral reform.
His group would go a step further by instituting the direct election of the prime minister.
The committee’s recommendations are coming up for debate in the Knesset’s Legal Committee, where an electoral reform bill is to be drafted.
If the Labor-Likud alliance holds up, the bill could proceed quickly to the Knesset floor.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
