1999 Israeli general election

1999 Israeli general election

17 May 1999
Turnout	78.7%
Prime ministerial election
← 1996 2001 →
Candidate Ehud Barak Benjamin Netanyahu Party One Israel Likud Popular vote 1,791,020 1,402,474 Percentage 56.1% 43.9%
Prime Minister before election Benjamin Netanyahu Likud Prime Minister after election Ehud Barak One Israel
Knesset election
← 1996 2003 →
Party Leader % Seats +/– One Israel Ehud Barak 20.3 26 −11 Likud Benjamin Netanyahu 14.1 19 −8 Shas Aryeh Deri 13.0 17 +7 Meretz Yossi Sarid 7.6 10 +1 Yisrael BaAliyah Natan Sharansky 5.1 6 −1 Shinui Yosef Lapid 5.0 6 New Centre Party Yitzhak Mordechai 5.0 6 New Mafdal Yitzhak Levi 4.2 5 −4 UTJ Meir Porush 3.7 5 +1 Ra'am Abdulmalik Dehamshe 3.4 5 −1 National Union Benny Begin 3.0 4 New Hadash Mohammad Barakeh 2.6 3 −1 Yisrael Beiteinu Avigdor Lieberman 2.6 4 New Balad Azmi Bishara 1.9 2 +1 One Nation Amir Peretz 1.9 2 New This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Speaker of the Knesset before Speaker of the Knesset after Dan Tichon Likud Avraham Burg One Israel

Early general elections for both the Prime Minister and the Knesset were held in Israel on 17 May 1999 following a vote of no confidence in the government; the incumbent Likud Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ran for re-election.

This election was only the second time in Israeli history an election had been held for the Prime Minister's post in addition to elections for the

Ehud Barak, promising peace talks and withdrawal from Lebanon by July 2000,[1]^[2] won the election.

History

In the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, although the Likud government had negotiated the Wye River Memorandum and it had passed the Knesset overwhelmingly in November 1998, subsequent negotiations with the Palestinians were going badly. The lack of progress had alienated support for the government on the left, as well as on its right. The left claimed negotiations were moving too slowly, while the more extreme right were unhappy with the contemplated territorial concessions included in the memorandum itself.

The

Netanyahu's government finally gave up the ghost due to difficulties in passing the state budget and in January 1999 passed a bill calling for early elections.

Two parties, Manhigut Yehudit and Voice of the Environment, initially signed up to participate in the elections, but withdrew their candidacy before election day.

Debates

Results

Prime Minister

Knesset

Yisrael Beiteinu gained a seat after the vote-sharing process was completed.

Aftermath

Although Barak won the Prime Ministerial election comfortably, his One Israel alliance won only 26 seats, meaning he had to form a convoluted coalition with Shas, Meretz, Yisrael BaAliyah, the Centre Party, the National Religious Party and United Torah Judaism.

When Barak's government collapsed after the start of the

After winning the Prime Ministerial elections, Ehud Barak formed the 28th government of Israel on 6 July 1999. His coalition included One Israel, Shas, Meretz, Yisrael BaAliyah, the Centre Party, the National Religious Party and United Torah Judaism, and initially had 16 ministers, though the number later rose to 24.

United Torah Judaism left the coalition in September 1999 after a breach of the Sabbath. The government finally collapsed on 10 December 2000 when Barak resigned in the face of the outbreak of the

Sharon formed the 29th government on 7 March 2001. He set up a national unity government, including Likud, Labor-Meimad, Shas, the Centre Party, the National Religious Party, United Torah Judaism, Yisrael BaAliyah, and National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu. Sharon's government had 26 ministers, which later rose to 29, necessitating the addition of a small table to the end of the Ministers row in the Knesset.

During the Knesset term, there were several splits, mergers, and defections. The One Israel alliance broke into its constituent parts,

External links

• Historical overview of the Fifteenth Knesset Knesset website (in English)
• Election results Knesset website