The Israel Cabinet approved today a measure sponsored by Premier David Ben Gurion to hold elections of mayors in Israel by direct ballot, rather than by proportional voting for party slates and the election of mayors by municipal councils thus voted into office.
The measure was seen as the entering wedge of the Ben Gurion program for eliminating proportional representation in national elections, too, and moving Israel toward the Anglo-American two-party form of government. The left-wing Socialist parties in the Cabinet have fought the measure bitterly fearing their submersion within the Mapai in a two-party system.
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