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Legislative elections are scheduled to be held in Israel by 27 October 2026 to elect the 120 members of the twenty-sixth Knesset. [1] In late February 2024 it was suggested it was likely they would take place in January or February 2025. [2]
After the 36th government lost its majority, the 2022 snap election was called. This resulted in the Netanyahu bloc gaining a majority, [3] and a government was successfully negotiated between Likud, Otzma Yehudit, Noam, Religious Zionist Party, United Torah Judaism and Shas. The coalition was sworn in on 29 December 2022. [4] [5]
With this new government, Netanyahu returned to the premiership, having previously been out of that office since the anti-Netanyahu bloc won a majority in the 2021 election and formed a government without Netanyahu's Likud.
Five members of the National Unity party (Benny Gantz, Gadi Eizenkot, Gideon Sa'ar, Hili Tropper and Yifat Shasha-Biton) joined an emergency wartime government in October 2023 following the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war. Gantz and Eizenkot also joined the Israeli war cabinet. [6] Sa'ar announced on 25 March 2024 that New Hope had resigned from the government. [7]
The 120 seats in the Knesset are elected by closed list proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency. The electoral threshold for the election is 3.25%. [8]
Two parties can sign a surplus vote agreement that allows them to compete for leftover seats as if they were running together on the same list. The Bader–Ofer method slightly favours larger lists, meaning that alliances are more likely to receive leftover seats than parties would be individually. If the alliance receives leftover seats, the Bader–Ofer calculation is applied privately, to determine how the seats are divided among the two allied lists. [9]
Per sections 8 and 9 of the Israeli quasi-constitutional Basic Law: Knesset, an election will typically be called approximately 4 years after the previous election, on the first or third Tuesday of the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, depending on whether or not the previous year was a Jewish Leap Year. An election can happen earlier if the government falls and the Knesset is dissolved, or later if the Knesset's term is extended by a supermajority vote.
The next election is scheduled to be held no later than 27 October 2026. [1] In late February 2024 Yoav Krakowsky, an Israeli journalist and radio reporter, suggested during an edition of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation's Friday evening magazine programme that they would take place in January or February 2025. [2]
After the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel and subsequent Israel–Hamas war, some have called for the resignation of Prime Minister Netanyahu, [10] [11] with polls suggesting that more than 75% of Israelis believe he should step down. [12] [13] There have also been calls for a snap election once the war is over. Minister of Labor Yoav Ben-Tzur said that an election should occur within 90 days of the end of the war, [14] although he later walked those statements back. [15] Polling suggests that 64% of Israelis believe that an election should happen as soon as the war is over. [13]
The table below lists the results of 2022 Israeli legislative election.
| Name | Ideology | Symbol | Primary demographic | Leader | 2022 result | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes (%) | Seats | ||||||
| Likud | Conservatism | מחל | – | Benjamin Netanyahu | 23.41% | 32 / 120 (27%) | |
| Yesh Atid | Liberal Zionism | פה | – | Yair Lapid | 17.78% | 24 / 120 (20%) | |
| Religious Zionist Party | Religious Zionism Kahanism | ט | Israeli settlers Modern Orthodox and Hardal Jews | Bezalel Smotrich | 10.83% | 14 / 120 (12%) | |
| National Unity | Conservatism Zionism | כן | – | Benny Gantz | 9.08% | 12 / 120 (10%) | |
| Shas | Religious conservatism | שס | Sephardi, Mizrahi, and Haredim Jews | Aryeh Deri | 8.24% | 11 / 120 (9%) | |
| United Torah Judaism | Religious conservatism | ג | Ashkenazi Haredim | Yitzhak Goldknopf | 5.88% | 7 / 120 (6%) | |
| Yisrael Beiteinu | Conservatism Nationalism | ל | – | Avigdor Lieberman | 4.49% | 6 / 120 (5%) | |
| Ra'am | Islamism Social conservatism | עם | Israeli Arab and Sunni Muslims Negev Bedouin | Mansour Abbas | 4.07% | 5 / 120 (4%) | |
| Hadash–Ta'al | Two-state solution Secularism | ום | Israeli Arabs | Ayman Odeh | 3.75% | 5 / 120 (4%) | |
| Labor | Social democracy | אמת | – | Merav Michaeli | 3.69% | 4 / 120 (3%) | |
Leadership elections have been held by some parties to determine party leadership ahead of the election. Primary elections will be held by some parties in advance of the national election to determine the composition of their party list.
Party leader Merav Michaeli announced on 7 December 2023 that she was calling an early leadership election that she would not run in. [16] In response, Meretz chairman Tomer Reznik urged Labor to hold joint primaries with Meretz. [17]
On 6 May, the party announced the final slate of leadership candidates: Yair Golan, Itai Leshem, Azi Nagar and Avi Shaked. [18]
The leadership election for the Israeli Labor Party was held on 28 May. [19] Golan won the election. [20]
Yesh Atid held its first leadership primary on 28 March 2024, in which party leader Yair Lapid narrowly beat MK Ram Ben-Barak 308 votes to 279, a margin of 29 votes. [21]
This graph shows the polling trends from the 2022 Israeli legislative election until the next election day using a 4-poll moving average. Scenario polls are not included here. For parties not crossing the electoral threshold (currently 3.25%) in any given poll, the number of seats is calculated as a percentage of the 120 total seats.
Gideon Moshe Sa'ar is an Israeli politician who served as Minister of Justice between 2021 and 2022. Sa'ar was previously a member of the Knesset for the Likud between 2003 and 2014, Deputy Prime Minister for a brief spell in 2021, as well as holding the posts of Education Minister (2009–2013) and Minister of the Interior (2013–2014). In 2019 Sa'ar returned to the Knesset and unsuccessfully ran against longtime leader Benjamin Netanyahu for the leadership of the Likud; he left the Knesset the following year after establishing a new party called New Hope.
Yesh Atid is a centrist, Zionist political party in Israel. It was founded in 2012 by former TV journalist Yair Lapid, the son of the former Shinui party politician and Israeli Justice Minister Tommy Lapid.
Early elections for the twentieth Knesset were held in Israel on 17 March 2015. Disagreements within the governing coalition, particularly over the budget and a "Jewish state" proposal, led to the dissolution of the government in December 2014. The Labor Party and Hatnuah formed a coalition, called Zionist Union, with the hope of defeating the Likud party, which had led the previous governing coalition along with Yisrael Beiteinu, Yesh Atid, The Jewish Home, and Hatnuah.
Merav Michaeli is an Israeli politician, journalist, TV anchor, radio broadcaster, feminist, and activist currently serving as a member of the Knesset for the Israeli Labor Party. She served as the party's leader from 2021 until 2024, and as Minister of Transport in the thirty-sixth government of Israel.
The Israeli Labor Party, commonly known as HaAvoda, is a social democratic and Labor Zionist political party in Israel. The party was established in 1968 by a merger of Mapai, Ahdut HaAvoda and Rafi. Until 1977, all Israeli prime ministers were affiliated with the Labor movement. The current party leader is Yair Golan, who was elected on 28 May 2024.
Early legislative elections were held in Israel on 9 April 2019 to elect the 120 members of the 21st Knesset. Elections had been due in November 2019, but were brought forward following a dispute between members of the current government over a bill on national service for the ultra-Orthodox population, as well as impending corruption charges against incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Snap legislative elections were held in Israel on 17 September 2019 to elect the 120 members of the 22nd Knesset. Following the previous elections in April, incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a governing coalition. On 30 May, the Knesset voted to dissolve itself and trigger new elections, in order to prevent Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz from being appointed Prime Minister-designate. This election marked the first time the Knesset voted to dissolve itself before a government had been formed.
Blue and White Israel Resilience Party is a centrist, liberal Zionist political party in Israel founded in December 2018 by Benny Gantz, former Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.
Blue and White was a centrist and liberal Zionist political alliance in Israel. It was established by the Israel Resilience Party, Yesh Atid and Telem to run in the April 2019 Knesset election, in hopes of defeating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Blue and White defines itself as a pluralistic alliance representing all citizens on the political and religious spectrums. The phrase "blue and white" refers to the colors of the Israeli flag, and is colloquially used to describe something as being typically Israeli.
Michal Shir Segman is an Israeli politician. She is currently a member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid, having previously served as an MK for New Hope from 2021 to 2022 and for Likud between 2019 and 2020.
Ofer Cassif is a far-left Israeli politician who has represented Hadash in the Knesset since April 2019.
Legislative elections were held in Israel on 2 March 2020 to elect members of the twenty-third Knesset. The result was initially a stalemate, which was resolved when Likud and Blue & White reached a coalition agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, the premiership would rotate between Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, with Gantz given the new position of Alternate Prime Minister until November 2021. These elections followed the continued political deadlock after the April and September 2019 Knesset elections.
Legislative elections were held in Israel on 23 March 2021 to elect the 120 members of the 24th Knesset. It was the fourth Knesset election in two years, amidst the continued political deadlock following the previous three elections in April 2019, September 2019 and 2020. Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett announced that they had formed a rotation government on 2 June 2021, which was approved on 13 June 2021.
New Hope, officially known as New Hope — The National Right, and also translated as New Hope — The United Right, is a centre-right to right-wing national-liberal political party in Israel.
Legislative elections were held in Israel on 1 November 2022 to elect the 120 members of the 25th Knesset. The results saw the right-wing national camp of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu win a parliamentary majority, amid losses for left-wing and Arab parties, as well as gains by the far-right.
The thirty-sixth government of Israel, or the Bennett–Lapid government, was the cabinet of Israel that was formed on 13 June 2021 after the 2021 Israeli legislative election. On 2 June 2021, a coalition agreement was signed between Yesh Atid, Blue and White, Yamina, the Labor Party, Yisrael Beiteinu, New Hope, Meretz, and the United Arab List. The cabinet was succeeded by the thirty-seventh government of Israel, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, on 29 December 2022.
In the run up to the next Israeli legislative election, various organisations are conducting opinion polling to gauge voting intention in Israel during the term of the twenty-fifth Knesset. This article lists the results of such polls.
The 2022 Meretz leadership election was held on 23 August 2022 in the leadup to the 2022 Israeli legislative election. On 12 July, incumbent Nitzan Horowitz announced that he would not seek re-election as leader. Former party leader Zehava Galon defeated former deputy Chief of the General Staff Yair Golan.
The National Unity or State Camp is an Israeli political alliance made up of former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz's Israel Resilience Party, former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot and MK Matan Kahana.
The 2024 Israeli Labor Party leadership election was held on 28 May 2024 to elect a successor to Merav Michaeli as leader of the Israeli Labor Party. Yair Golan won the election.
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