Liberman to insist on electoral reform

Though Yisrael Beytenu will not be holding coalition talks because it ran with Likud, it will demand change in electoral system.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman - Our word is our Bond 390 (photo credit: Flash 90)
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman - Our word is our Bond 390
(photo credit: Flash 90)
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.