Yesh Atid's electoral reform bill passes hurdle

Bill passes preliminary reading in Knesset 60-44; MK Henin: Yesh Atid doing the right-wing government's dirty work.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN, JPOST.COM STAFF
Ronen Hoffman (photo credit: Courtesy Knesset)
Ronen Hoffman
(photo credit: Courtesy Knesset)
Yesh Atid's electoral reform bill passed a preliminary reading of the Knesset plenum on Wednesday, with 60 MKs voting in favor of the bill and 44 opposed.
The bill, proposed by MK Ronen Hoffman, calls for limiting the number of ministers to 18, who can each hold only one portfolio, and capping the number of deputy ministers at four. The bill would raise the minimum number of MKs required to pass a no-confidence motion from 61 to 65 and the electoral threshold from two to four percent.
There will now be negotiations to combine the Yesh Atid bill with a bill proposed by Knesset Law Committee chairman David Rotem (Yisrael Beytenu) that already passed in its preliminary reading on May 8 before coming to final votes by the end of the month.
Changing the electoral system was one of Yesh Atid's central campaign promises.  Hoffman rejected the opposition's claims that the bill is anti-Democratic at the Knesset plenum on Wednesday, saying that it would improve governability and "strengthen Israeli democracy."
Hadash MK Dov Henin attacked the bill as being the same as Yisrael Beytenu's bill "in Yesh Atid wrapping paper."
Henin claimed that "the raising of the electoral threshold strikes a fatal blow to ideological parties."
He accused Yesh Atid of doing "the right-wing government's dirty work."