How Israel elects its Knesset and its Prime Minister

Israel will have a national election in April. Their elections work differently from ours. We have districts. The candidate with the most votes represents the district. The president or, in states, the governor gets elected separately. Israel has no districts. Each party has a list of candidates. Each eligible voter votes for the political party he or she supports. The parties make up the list in rank order. There are 120 seats in the Knesset. This is a rough description: If a party got 25% of the vote, its first 30 ranked candidates are elected to the Knesset. If a party got 10% of the vote, its first 6 candidate would be elected to the Knesset. If a party doesn’t get 3.25% of the vote, it will not have any members of the Knesset. Parties can join together, combine their lists, and attract members of both parties and others who like the combination. The President of Israel (an otherwise ceremonial office) invites the leader most likely to be able to form a majority coalition to do just that and form a government. The current prime minister’s party, Likud, has formed a shocking coalition for this election. More about the coalition tomorrow.