The Knesset has dispersed, going to the polls: what is expected and how much will it cost?

At midnight (Tuesday-Wednesday), the 23rd Knesset dissolved and Israel entered a fourth election campaign within two years. Meanwhile, the Constitution Committee unanimously approved on second and third reading the temporary directive for conducting the elections to the 24th Knesset during the Corona crisis. Why are we going back to the election again? And how will the voting and counting of votes take place? Ynet makes an order.

Towards midnight, Knesset Speaker MK Yariv Levin said: “We are entering the election period from here after the dissolution of the Knesset.” He asked to convene the Knesset committee today to set the rules for the holiday period. He thanked Knesset members for maintaining a parliamentary routine “even under the complicated conditions of dealing with the corona virus.”

The coalition agreement between the Likud and Blue and White, signed a little less than a year ago, stipulates that a biennial state budget for the years 2020-2021 must be transferred. Towards the time of the budget transfer, the Likud insisted on transferring a budget only for 2020, a move that in blue and white was seen as a violation of the coalition agreement, which means that the rotation between Netanyahu and Gantz will not materialize. The crisis was resolved through the “Hauser compromise” – the Basic Law of the Knesset was amended so that it was determined that the state budget must receive the approval of the Knesset by December 23, 2020.

In recent days, there has been a great attempt by coalition members to amend the Basic Law again and postpone the deadline for approving the budget, but at the last minute, the second and third time Knesset members were called to vote, MKs Michal Shir, Assaf Zamir, Miki Haimovich and Ram Shefa appeared in the plenum. The initiative and buried the chances of the current government surviving.

Since the state budget has not been approved by the set date – the Knesset is automatically dispersed according to law. This is the first time that the Knesset has dispersed due to non-transfer of budget. However, according to Dr. Assaf Shapira of the Israel Democracy Institute, there have been cases in the past in which the Knesset was dissolved on the grounds that a budget could not be transferred.

As a state budget has not yet been approved, at midnight the Knesset automatically disbanded, and Israel entered a fourth election campaign within two years. The current government will continue as a transitional government until elections are held on March 23, 2021. Meanwhile, some parties will hold internal elections, others will try to recruit stars to the list and update it, and more new lists are expected to emerge ahead of election time.

The discussion in the Knesset’s Constitution Committee has flooded the surface with many disagreements between the Ministry of Health and the Central Election Commission, regarding the question of how to preserve the right to vote of every person – and also his health.

Central Election Commission Director General Orly Adas said that at present the number of voters in all Yucatan ballots will be protected, the members of the polling committees will be protected, in each polling station there will be means of disinfection for workers and voters and consideration is being given to polling stations inside nursing homes.

“If the Ministry of Health takes a series of proper and correct steps right now – maybe on election day we will only reach hundreds of patients and the problems will be solved,” Adas said.

Currently, the idea of ​​several election days, with the aim of diluting the mass of voters in one day, has fallen out of favor. According to Adas, the reason is economic. “The cost of Election Day to the economy is enormous. It is illogical and unrealistic to hold a few such days and shut down schools and workplaces.”

To solve the problem of voter turnout at the polls, the Election Commission will work on other solutions such as adding polling stations and reducing the number of voters at each polling station.

To protect the elderly population, which is at risk from the corona virus, polling stations will be set up in nursing homes whose votes will be counted along with the rest of the double envelopes. Nurses from outside, except at polling stations, will not be allowed to enter nursing homes.

Members of the polling station committee at the same institution will undergo a corona examination 72 hours before entering the nursing home and will not be replaced during the same day.

Even during the Corona period, the voting method will remain as it has been to this day – voting using a paper note inserted into an envelope – and at the ballot box. The Election Commission expressed opposition to the Ministry of Health’s proposal to hold the election online or by mail for fear of election fraud and other disruptions.

“The Ministry of Health’s proposals are unrealistic. It does not make sense to change the electoral system now,” Adas said. “Such a dramatic change can only be passed in legislation.”

The Central Election Commission will set up separate polling stations for the isolated and separate polling stations for Corona patients – which will be placed at a sufficient distance from the other polling stations in order to prevent contact between voters. The Election Commission clarified that at the moment it is not possible to hold a shuttle to the polls and that the Ministry of Health should trust the voters not to go outside beyond the voting time.

In each municipality or local or regional council in which those entitled to vote are registered, at least one ballot box shall be placed for patients and one ballot box for debtors in isolation who are not patients. Regarding all polling stations, the chairman of the election committee, in consultation with the deputies and the director general of the Ministry of Health, will determine the provisions that will apply to all polling stations and voters who come to vote – such as voting restrictions, maximum occupancy, maintaining hygiene, questioning at the entrance and more.

The big concern now is that it is not possible to know how many corona and isolated patients will be until election day so it is difficult to estimate in advance how many polling stations will be required and where they will be placed.

In the event that a third closure is imposed in Israel under the Corona Law, it will be possible to leave the place of residence for the purpose of voting in the Knesset and local authority elections. Similarly, voters in a restricted area will be able to get to the polling station in the area.

The chairman of the Central Committee, Judge Neil Handel, will be able to order a vote in double envelopes in the event of a ballot contamination with the Corona virus. The ballot committee will indicate next to the voter’s name the time of his vote for an epidemiological or criminal investigation of election purity.

This is one of the questions that the Central Election Commission does not yet know how to answer. “We only have two days to do this operation and the number of envelopes will be doubled. We will have to spread over more areas and more workers. We may have to make partitions between the workers in the wide compound. We will try to find solutions.”

During an election year in a normal year, without the additions of the corona, the election budget is about NIS 400 million. This time it is a significant addition of polling stations, workers, disinfection and protection equipment and additional additions – which will cost an additional NIS 90 million.

In order for the election to go ahead, the government must approve the transfer of a special budget for the election, separately to the state budget. The Election Commission warned that they should get at least part of the budget soon. “These are huge quantities of equipment, the suppliers have to meet our schedules and the delivery to the polls has to be ready a month before Election Day.”