Israel is set to hold parliamentary elections on October 27 to elect a new Knesset, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing the prospect of losing power amid growing public discontent. The election will be the country’s first national vote since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack and the ensuing wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
The seats won by each list are determined by its share of the nationwide vote, subject to the electoral threshold. However, Israelis do not directly elect their prime minister. Instead, they vote for political parties, and the country’s next leader emerges through a process of coalition negotiations and parliamentary confidence. Here’s how Israel’s electoral system works and how a new government is formed. The entire country serves as a single electoral constituency. Unlike systems in which voters elect representatives from separate constituencies, Israel allocates parliamentary seats based on the nationwide vote share received by each qualifying party or list. To form a government, a prospective prime minister must be able to secure sufficient support in the Knesset. Each electoral list submits a list of candidates in a predetermined order. On polling day, voters select a paper ballot bearing the name and identifying letters of their preferred party or list. Ballots are placed in envelopes and deposited in ballot boxes. Voters do not separately choose the prime minister or an individual member of the Knesset. After the election results are published, the president of Israel consults representatives of the parliamentary factions elected to the Knesset. The representatives can recommend a lawmaker to form the next government.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, is seeking to remain in office as his government faces scrutiny over the security failures surrounding the October 7 attack and other issues. A coalition commanding the support of at least 61 of the 120 lawmakers has a majority.
The elections are being viewed as a test of his political standing, with recent opinion polls suggesting that his governing coalition could lose power, according to Reuters.
