Tentative Date for Elections is June 23, According to Likud

Likud said Wednesday that June 23 will in all probability be the date of the next Knesset elections. But the Labor Party would like to hold them sooner.

June 23 has emerged as the “probable election date, after consultations with the coalition partners and Labor,” said Sara Doron, chairwoman of the Likud Knesset faction.

That is five months before the expiration of the 12th Knesset’s tenure in November, when elections are mandated by law.

Early elections became inevitable after Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s coalition government was deprived of its parliamentary majority last week by the defection of two far-right parties, Tehiya and Moledet.

Neither Likud nor Labor opposes going to the polls early. But Doron may have erred if she implied that a date had been agreed to by the rival parties.

The date is not final, said Micha Harish, secretary-general of the Labor Party. He said Labor would continue to try to persuade Likud to advance elections by a week, to June 16.

Harish charged that Likud deliberately wants to schedule them after June 20, when the high school term ends.

According to Harish, his rivals fear “that many 18-year-olds will vote against the Likud,” whereas on June 23, many of those youths may already be vacationing abroad, far from the polling places. Israel does not have absentee ballots.

Harish said a final decision would be made Thursday at a meeting of the Labor Party leadership bureau.

Meanwhile, the Tehiya party has announced it will introduce a no-confidence motion next week accusing the government of “giving in to American dictates” on the issue of loan guarantees.

By abstaining, Tehiya helped the government defeat a series of five no-confidence motions in the Knesset on Monday. Submitted by Labor and its left-wing allies, the motions concerned economic and social issues.