The Likud Knesset faction rejected early elections in a vote taken today in face of mounting pressure to go to the polls. It has the support of its coalition partners, notably the National Religious Party which is riven by internal dissension and does not want to face the electorate at this time.
Ironically, the very issue on which the opposition seeks to bring down the government — the state of the economy — was cited by the Likud faction executive as the reason to avoid early elections. According to Likud, elections at a time of economic crisis would damage the country. Interior Minister Yosef Burg of the NRP supports that view.
He said today that the economic situation must be stabilized before the country can afford the Luxury of general elections. He explained that elections are usually characterized by government financial “generosity toward the people” which is out of the question now.
SOME LIKUD MEMBERS SUPPORT EARLY ELECTIONS
Likud and its partmers are reacting to signs that not only the opposition but some of their own members are convinced that the government must go to the electorate for a renewed mandate.
Mordechai Ben-Porat, Minister-Without-Portfolio, who resigned from Premier Yitzhak Shamir’s Cabinet yesterday, said he would support early elections if he failed in efforts to engineer a national unity government. Last week, Deputy Premier David Levy urged early elections, convinced that Likud would win.
Two members of Likud’s Liberal Party wing, Yitzhak Berman and Dror Siegerman, have announced publicly that they support early elections. Siegerman said that if 60 MKs vote to go to the polls, he would cast the decisive 61st vote.
FATE OF GOVERNMENT IN TAMI HANDS
At this juncture, however, the opposition remains four votes short of the necessary majority. The fate of the Likud government therefore seems to rest on the behavior of its least predictable coalition partner, the Tami party which holds three Knesset seats.
Tami supported the government against three opposition non-confidence motions in the Knesset last week, but only after the Treasury gave in to a series of economic demands on behalf of the party’s low income, largely Sephardic constituency. This immediately raised charges of “blackmail” from other coalition members. The concessions will be costly at a time of drastic budget cutting.
Tami has set a deadline at the end of February for an examination of whether it can achieve more by working within the coalition than outside of it. If Tami decides to cast its three votes for early elections, an opposition motion is likely to prevail.
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