MK Yaakov Margi (shas) commented this afternoon on what his party leader, Aryeh Deri said, basically burying the option of a united party of Shas, Degel Hatorah and Agudat Yisrael together. Deri did not address it directly, but did say the parties have worked well together in the past and after the elections will continue to work together, perhaps in the form of some sort of bloc, and the various council of sages should get together and put out calls for the Sefardi religious and traditional to vote Shas and the Ashkenazi Haredi to vote UTJ.

Margi commented explaining that when a party, UTJ, is playing in your field, i.e. trying to bring in votes from Haredi Sefardim, using a variety of manipulations, so the party leader has to come out and say Ashkenazis should vote for them and Sefardim for us.

I like how different parties (and this is not limited to Shas, but they said this almost explicitly) believe they own certain voters and nobody else has the right to get their votes. I will vote for whichever party I feel closest to and most aligned with - nobody owns my vote and I am willing to, and plan to,  hear the pitches of all the parties and decide for whom to vote, even if I already have my inclination for which party to vote. No party owns anybody's vote. You want my vote - earn it.