30 parties register to run for 23rd Knesset
Thirty political lists registered on Tuesday and Wednesday to participate in the elections for the 23rd Knesset, which is slated for March 2.
Ayelet Shaked (R), leader of the Yamina Party, casts her vote for Israel’s 22nd Knesset, with her daughter, at the polling station in Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv, Sep 17, 2019. Photo by Kobi Richter/TPS
The lists include mainstream and well-known parties such as the Likud and Labor, which has merged with Meretz and Gesher, as well as the less-known lists such as the Pirates and Simply Love parties.
The majority of the parties will not pass the threshold and will not receive the required minimum of four seats to enter the Knesset.
A late-night drama occurred in the Knesset on Wednesday when three of the religious-Zionist parties, the New Right, Jewish Home and National Union, decided to run together and left behind Otzmah Yehudit. After tense hours and political maneuvering, the feuding factions merged together to form the Yemina party.
Several politicians injured by the merge decried the move as treason, and Member of Knesset Moti Yogev announced he would not run in the coming elections.
Otzmah Yehudit registered to run alone and is expected to not to enter the next Knesset.
The number of parties to register to run in the upcoming elections is a significant drop from the 47 that registered for the first round of elections in April 2019.
Some 10,720 polling stations will be deployed throughout the country on Election Day and 96 polling stations will open at Israeli embassies abroad, with a total of some 6,400,000 eligible voters streaming to the ballots, compared to 5,881,696 in the elections to the 20th Knesset.
The latest polls show the outcome of the elections will not change the Knesset’s configuration significantly, and both sides are primarily working to ensure that the other cannot form a coalition, possibly setting the stage for the fourth round of elections in a year’s time.
