Yisrael Beytenu’s key demand in talks with Likud would be changing the electoral
system, party leader Avigdor Liberman said Sunday at a press conference at
Yisrael Beytenu’s headquarters in Jerusalem’s Romema
neighborhood.
Yisrael Beytenu will not be holding coalition talks this
time, because the party ran together with Likud in the January 22 election. But
Liberman said his party would still insist on implementing its agenda, starting
with electoral reform.
“The current system has resulted in too many
parties with too many ideas making it into the Knesset, which makes it hard to
find common ground and make real changes that the public wants,” Liberman
said.
The electoral reforms Liberman said he would push for include
automatically making the leader of the largest party prime minister, limiting
the cabinet to 18 ministers who would not be Knesset members, and no longer
permitting toppling a prime minister by failing to pass the state
budget.
The electoral threshold would be raised from two to three percent
and no-confidence motions, which can now be filed by any opposition faction,
would require 65 MKs to come to the Knesset floor.
The reforms will be
discussed at a meeting of Likud and Yisrael Beytenu MKs at the Knesset on
Tuesday that will be presided over by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and
Liberman.
Liberman defended his contribution to the Likud-Beytenu ticket,
despite the joint list receiving a disappointing 31 seats. He cited a study of
Russian immigrant voters that indicated that they gave the joint list 12 seats.