All the "small" parties in Knesset will be affected by this, including Meretz, Yisrael Beyteynu, UTJ and Shas. If the proposal should ever pass, these parties would have to form deals and mergers with other parties, the way UAL parties all got together, they way Livni formed a bloc with Labor, and the way Tekuma has been hanging together with Habayit Hayehudi. Shas and UTJ would most likely merge, Meretz would have to make a deal with Labor, or maybe with the United Arab List. Yisrael Beyteynu with Habayit Hayehudi, or Yesh Atid or Kulanu Kachlon or Likud - depending on whom they are at peace with or fighting with on any given day.. Of course any of the existing parties might become threatened by this law or might be protected by this law, depending on when it is brought up - as each party grows and shrinks as per the whims and trends of the voters.
MK Sharren Kaskell (Likud) is behind the preparation of this proposal, and the purpose is to create more political stability. With tens of thousands going to waste, people will presumably vote for parties they think are likely to pass the threshold, and no longer vote for the really small parties that seem to crop up every election cycle and then disappear and cause all those votes to be wasted.
Haskel says she expects that this proposal will cause the end effect of their remaining just five political entities - two large parties, one centrist party, one Arab party and one Right-Religious party.
Haskel is optimistic, but I don't see how she is going to get her party's coalition partners to agree to pass a law that will effectively put themselves out of business. That is why electoral reform has to be done by an external body.
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If they would institute regional elections, that would pretty much solve the problem by itself, as well as giving each citizen their "own" MK.
ReplyDeletethere will NEVER be only one religious party. charedim will NEVER vote for non-haredi O judaism....
ReplyDeleteYou never know. They may work out that if they don't hang together, theyll hang separately, as Ben Franklin said. However, the philopsphy that the MK's vote the way the Rabbis say and the no women MK's or Ministers probably would kill it.
DeleteMK's that were actually beholden to their constituents. What a concept!
ReplyDeleteand will the DLs vote for a unified religious party? I don't think so. We know that there are more charedim than DL today. So they would lead the party. so this is a two-sided issue. don't always blame the charedim.
ReplyDelete