I am in favor of changing the election system. I want direct voting for the role of prime minister, similar to the method employed in the Unites States...I am in favor of canceling the hareidi parties, and for regional elections with the president or prime minister appointing professional and not political ministers
-- Aryeh Deri
I have been saying this for years already, during just about every election season (which comes in Israel every 2-3 years or so..) for the past 15 years.
Me too. The problem is that the very thing that's causing the problem (small parties in the coalitions) are preventing the solution. How could any small party vote in favor of this? It would be suicide.
ReplyDeleteThe only solution is to create a government with whatever parties are willing to make this change. That government will have one purpose and one purpose only: to change the system. Once the system has been changed that government would dissolve itself and new elections would be held under the new system.
A piece of cake!
Only statesmen could pass such a rule, we are sorely laking in that department. Our current system is too corrupt (in a political and not necessarily monetary way) to allow for this change.
ReplyDeletewow, who knew I could ever get behind anything that Aryeh Deri says?
ReplyDeleteI certainly agree with Menachem Lipkin, also with the (I assume) sarcastic comment that this would be a "piece of cake" to achieve.
ReplyDeleteI agree as well with MrsRBS in thinking that I never would have imagined that Aryeh Deri would say something with which I agree; but then again, it seems to me that he has SAID some things in the past that I agreed with.
However, since Aryeh Deri has been one of the most cynical politicians this country has ever known, the issue is not his saying something good, it is whether he will really promote such an agenda or is just "putting it on record" so that he can look good!
In the big picture, this country could certainly use regional elections where each region elects one or two Knesset members who are DIRECTLY ACCOUNTABLE TO THE VOTERS and not to the party's central committee, and where ALL Knesset members are elected that way. Since any party which has claimed that this is on their agenda has either not gotten any seats in Knesset, or has not promoted this issue AT ALL, the big question now (as Menachem has hinted) is how to get this excellent change implemented!