Mapai Plans National Referendum on Change in Israel Election System

The new Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, elected on November 3, will be convened on November 30, it was announced today as Mapai leaders pondered a national referendum on a change in Israel’s proportional representation election system.

Agreement to such a referendum, it was understood, was being considered by the Mapai officials as possible condition for partnership in the new coalition Government which will be headed again by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. This would not require coalition partner’s to join on in the Knesset for the electoral change but only for a referendum which would leave it to the electorate and not to the Knesset to decide.

The Central Elections Committee today published the official results of the election which gave Mapai 47 seats and the Mapai-backed Arab lists five seats for a total of 52 seats, nine short of an absolute majority of the 120 Knesset seats. The National Religious party won 12 seats, the joint Agudah list six, the right-wing Herut 17, the left-wing Mapam nine, the leftist Achdut Avodah seven, the Progressives six, General Zionists eight and Communists three.

Final results in the Tel Aviv Municipality struggle gave Achdut Avodah a second seat, bringing the strength of the left-wing parties to 15. These included 11 for Mapai, two for Achdut Avodah and one each for Mapam and the Communists. The right-wing total was 14, made up of six General Zionist, live Herut, two Religious party, and one Agudah.

The Progressives, who won two seats, now hold the deciding votes in the election for Mayor since neither the right nor left-wing factions have achieved a majority in the Council. If the Progressives choose to demand the mayoralty as the price for supporting a municipal coalition, their candidate would be Chaim Mordechai Stern, general director of Rassco.