Labor and Likud are dickering over a date for early elections, Voice of Israel Radio reported Thursday.
The two major parties in the unity coalition government seem to agree that early elections are inevitable, if their deadlock over the new American peace proposals remains unbroken after Premier Yitzhak Shamir returns from his visit to Washington next week.
Shamir said Thursday that he does not rule out preparations for early elections, but at the moment, they are premature. Labor Party leaders, meeting Wednesday at the home of Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, reportedly gave the green light for moving an early elections bill in the Knesset.
According to the radio report, Labor and Likud have begun informal contacts aimed at agreeing on a date. Early July has been mentioned.
It would be a compromise between Labor’s preference for elections at the end of May or early June and Likud’s proposal to hold them late in July or in August, a time Likud expects many Labor voters will be vacationing abroad. Israel does not have absentee ballots.
Although the push for early elections originated with Likud, that party realizes that Labor cannot muster a Knesset majority for its preferred date and therefore Likud is in no hurry.
Normally, elections would not take place until November. But the current stalemate on the peace process likely means voters will go to the polls much sooner.
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