MK (Yisrael Beitenu) Dudi Rotem explains his bill is intended to provide the coalition additional stability. Rotem, who heads the ministerial legislation committee is pushing a bill that would increase the minimum threshold to enter Knesset to 4%. The bill also sets a maximum number of cabinet ministers, 19 including the prime minister.
Rotem feels the prime minister is all too often held at bay by smaller parties seeking to blackmail him into deals with threats of siding with a no-confidence motion. He insists that by eliminating the smaller parties, the government will gain a significant measure of stability and longevity.
The ministerial committee on Monday 26 Iyar 5773 approved the bill clearing it to be brought for a preliminary vote in Knesset.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
Terrible idea! That can keep going and keep increasing it until they are left with two parties–and we see how well that works in the U.S.
Instead, they should get rid of the threshold entirely.
This will lead to more stability and prevent the splintering that we have seen over the years.
It will discourgage the nusiance candidates setting up their own list, but won’t affect Shas, though it would preclude the possibility of Degel ha-Torah and Agudat Yisrael running as separate parties. At one time the hilonim thought that raising the “threshold” would get rid of frum parties, but that’s no longer the case. At this point, it would probably get rid of Livni and what’s left of Kadimah.
Note the in the United States, the minimum percentage is either 50% (where a runoff is required), or in practice, around 40%. Candidates with 4% of the vote are considered jokes in the USA.
haifagirl: The U.S. system of a two party system with open primaries works much better than the joke system of Israel.