2009 Israeli legislative election
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All 120 seats in the Knesset 61 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 64.7% ( 1.1 pp) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
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Elections for the 18th Knesset were held in Israel on 10 February 2009.[1] These elections became necessary due to the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as leader of the Kadima party, and the failure of his successor, Tzipi Livni, to form a coalition government. Had Olmert remained in office or had Livni formed a coalition government, the elections would have been scheduled for 2010 instead.
Although the incumbent prime minister's party, Kadima, won the most seats in the parliament, the Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu was able to form a majority coalition government and become the new prime minister.
Background
On 17 September 2008, Kadima held a leadership election, which was won by Tzipi Livni. Following Livni's victory, former party leader Ehud Olmert (who did not run in the contest) resigned as Prime Minister. Livni was given six weeks to form a coalition,[2] but set a deadline of 26 October for parties to agree to join the new government.
Although the
President Peres had three days to consult on the recommendation, after which there was a period of three weeks in which other Knesset members could have offered to form an alternative coalition, but no such alternative was brought.[3]
The election would have to be held within 90 days after the end of that period.[2] Although Kadima submitted a bill to the Knesset on 27 October to call early elections and bypass the three-week period,[6] Peres' announcement to the Knesset that there was no chance of forming a government meant that the full waiting period stood.[6] Ehud Olmert was to remain the caretaker Prime Minister until a new government was formed after the elections.[2]
The traditional distinction between the Israeli left and the right had become blurred, with both the voters and the main candidates gravitating toward the center. Israelis, who had always been highly politicized, were switching affiliations more easily. On the Palestinian front, stark differences among the parties still remained. Kadima was committed to continuing talks for a two-state solution. Labor did not believe that bilateral Israeli–Palestinian negotiations could succeed under the current circumstances, and advocated a more comprehensive, regional approach to peace. Likud said it would promote an "economic peace" with the Palestinians and also hold political negotiations, although it was not clear about what.[7][8]
Procedures
Elections to the Knesset allocate 120 seats by
After official results are published, the President delegates the task of forming a government to the member of Knesset with the best chance of assembling a majority coalition (usually the leader of the largest party, but not required). That member has up to 42 days to negotiate with the different parties, and then present the government to the Knesset for a
Parliament factions
The table below lists the parliamentary factions represented in the
Name | Ideology | Symbol | Leader | 2006 result | Seats at 2008 dissolution | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes (%) | Seats | ||||||
Kadima | Liberalism | כן | Tzipi Livni | 22.02% | 29 / 120
|
29 / 120
| |
Labor | Social democracy | אמת | Ehud Barak | 15.06% | 19 / 120
|
19 / 120
| |
Shas | Religious conservatism
|
שס | Eli Yishai | 9.53% | 12 / 120
|
12 / 120
| |
Likud | National liberalism | מחל | Benjamin Netanyahu | 8.99% | 12 / 120
|
12 / 120
| |
Yisrael Beiteinu | Nationalism Secularism |
ל | Avigdor Lieberman | 8.99% | 11 / 120
|
11 / 120
| |
National Union-NRP | Religious Zionism National conservatism |
טב | Yaakov Katz | 7.14% | 9 / 120
|
9 / 120
| |
Gil
|
Pensioners' interests | זך | Rafi Eitan | 5.92% | 7 / 120
|
7 / 120
| |
UTJ | Religious conservatism
|
ג | Yaakov Litzman | 4.69% | 6 / 120
|
6 / 120
| |
Meretz | Social democracy Secularism |
מרצ | Haim Oron | 3.77% | 5 / 120
|
5 / 120
| |
Ra'am-Ta'al | Arab nationalism Islamism |
עם | Ibrahim Sarsur | 3.02% | 4 / 120
|
4 / 120
| |
Hadash | Communism Socialism |
ו | Mohammad Barakeh | 2.74% | 3 / 120
|
3 / 120
| |
Balad | Pan-arabism
|
ד | Jamal Zahalka | 2.30% | 3 / 120
|
3 / 120
|
Parties
By 23 December 2008, a record 43 parties had registered with the parties registrar, compared to 31 for the
Alliances
The
Meretz and Tnu'a HaHadasha, a new movement of left-wing activists led by Tzali Reshef, ran a joint list, with Tnua'a HaHadasha representatives getting third, seventh, and eleventh spots on the alliance's list.[15]
The anti-West Bank barrier movement Tarabut was merged into Hadash.[16]
The religious
New parties
Several political parties had been established since the 2006 elections. The first was
After the announcement of elections in late October 2008, the
Member of the Knesset Abbas Zakour left the United Arab List to establish the Arab Centre Party in early December 2008.[23] However, he later joined the Balad list.[24]
Opinion polls
Source | Party | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kadima | Labor Party | Shas | Likud | Yisrael Beiteinu | Jewish Home | National Union | Gil | United Torah Judaism | Meretz | United Arab List–Ta'al | Hadash | Balad | The Greens | |
17th Knesset | 29 | 19 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | |
Dahaf 27 Oct[25] |
29 | 11 | 11 | 26 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 2 | |||
Teleseker 27 Oct[26] |
31 | 11 | 8 | 29 | 11 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 11 | 3 | |||
Gal Hadash 30 Oct[27] |
30 | 13 | 10 | 31 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 2 | |||
Gal Hadash 13 Nov[28] |
28 | 11 | 10 | 33 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 3 | |||
Dialog 20 Nov[29] |
28 | 10 | 10 | 34 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 7 | 11 | 0 | |||
Dahaf 20 Nov[30] |
26 | 8 | 11 | 32 | 9 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 11 | 3 | |||
Shvakim Panorama 15 Dec[31] |
20 | 14 | 12 | 34 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 6 | 9 | 0 | |||
Teleseker 19 Dec[32] |
30 | 12 | 9 | 30 | 12 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 0 | |||
Dialog 25 Dec[33] |
26 | 11 | 13 | 30 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | – | |
Dialog 31 Dec[34] |
27 | 16 | 9 | 32 | 11 | 3 | – | 5 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 2 | – | |
Reshet Bet 15 Jan[35] |
21 | 15 | 10 | 28 | 15 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Panels 22 Jan[36] |
24 | 15 | 10 | 30 | 15 | 2 | 4 | – | 5 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | – |
Dialog 29 Jan[37] |
25 | 14 | 10 | 28 | 15 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | – |
Midgam 3 Feb[38] |
23 | 17 | 10 | 28 | 18 | 4 | 3 | – | 5 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | – |
Teleseker 4 Feb[39] |
23 | 17 | 10 | 27 | 17 | 3 | 4 | – | 5 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 0 | – |
Shvakim Panorama 5 Feb[40] |
21 | 16 | 11 | 25 | 16 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | – |
Panels 5 Feb[41] |
25 | 14 | 10 | 26 | 18 | 3 | 4 | – | 5 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 2 | – |
Dahaf 6 Feb[42] |
23 | 16 | 10 | 25 | 19 | 3 | 4 | – | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | – |
Dialog 6 Feb[43] |
25 | 14 | 9 | 27 | 18 | 2 | 4 | – | 6 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 2 | – |
Source | ||||||||||||||
Kadima | Labor Party | Shas | Likud | Yisrael Beiteinu | Jewish Home | National Union | Gil | United Torah Judaism | Meretz | United Arab List–Ta'al | Hadash | Balad | The Greens | |
Party |
Results
Lehem 611 | 0.02 | 0 | New | | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | 3,373,490 | 100.00 | 120 | 0 | |||||
Valid votes | 3,373,490 | 98.74 | |||||||
Invalid/blank votes | 43,097 | 1.26 | |||||||
Total votes | 3,416,587 | 100.00 | |||||||
Registered voters/turnout | 5,278,985 | 64.72 | |||||||
Source: Knesset Board of Elections |
Government formation
On 20 February, President Shimon Peres announced that Likud's
Labor and Kadima initially stated they would not join a Likud-led government, although both parties scheduled further talks.[45][46][47] Polls at the time showed that the public supported a national unity government between Likud and Kadima, with either Yisrael Beiteinu or Labor as the third senior coalition member.[48]
On 16 March 2009, Netanyahu signed a coalition agreement with Yisrael Beitenu.[49] Following an extension of the coalition negotiation deadline from 20 March to 3 April 2009, he then signed a coalition agreement with Shas on 22 March 2009,[50] and on 24 March 2009, he secured the support of the Labor Party, with Labor's central committee approving the deal by 680 votes to 507.[51] However, large parts of the party remained sceptical, accusing Ehud Barak of only being interested in his own benefits under the deal.[52] On 25 March, the Jewish Home also joined the coalition.[53]
On 30 March, in accordance with the Israeli
Unity Government 2012
On 27 March 2012, the Opposition party Kadima called for leadership primaries, pitting its leader Tzipi Livni against Shaul Mofaz.[58] Mofaz won with 62% of the vote. Livni resigned from the Knesset in May 2012.[59]
Earlier, Netanyahu defeated his rival Moshe Feiglin, winning 77% of the vote in the primaries for the Likud leadership held on 31 January 2012.[60]
On the eve of 7 May 2012, after weeks of deliberation and rumours, Netanyahu called for an early general national election and proposed 4 September as the election day, a notion which seemed inevitable—but in a dramatic turn of events, that very night, he announced that he had forged a unity government with the Kadima Party, effectively retracting the earlier call for early elections. The next afternoon, Likud and Kadima signed a coalition agreement placing Kadima's 28 Knesset members in the government, with Mofaz appointed as Active Vice Premier (in case of Netanyahu's absence) and Minister Without Portfolio. This agreement bolstered the government to the widest government in Israel's history, with a coalition of 94 seats and an opposition of only 26.
See also
- List of members of the eighteenth Knesset
- 2008 Israeli Labor Party primary
References
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External links
- Knesset site with official results (in Hebrew)
- Elections in Israel - February 2009 from the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Where they stand: Israeli election 2009
- Analysis
- Israel's Elections: Making a Hard Right By TIM MCGIRK, Time 8 Feb. 2009