Liberman, Blue and White slammed for vote sharing deal

"The cat is out of the bag," the Likud said. "Liberman signed a surplus agreement with Lapid and Gantz, after he publicly declared that he would support Gantz and Lapid for prime minister."

AUGUST 20, 2019 21:58

Heads of the Blue and White party, Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, and Avigdor Liberman, Head of rightist Yisrael Beiteinu party (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST) — Heads of the Blue and White party, Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, and Avigdor Liberman, Head of rightist Yisrael Beiteinu party

(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

Blue and White and Yisrael Beytenu faced condemnations from across the political spectrum on Tuesday for signing an agreement to share excess votes in the September 17 election.

Surplus-vote sharing agreements enable votes for a party to move to another if both have votes beyond the amount a seat is calculated to be worth. Calculations determine if there are enough extra votes between the two to give the party with more extra votes an additional seat.

לפי הליכוד זה "האקדח המעשן" שממקם את ליברמן בשמאל: pic.twitter.com/X3qDzYUOdA
— arik bender (@arikbender) August 20, 2019

The Likud released a video within 20 minutes of the signing of the deal warning that a vote for Yisrael Beytenu would help enable Blue and White leaders Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid to replace Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister.

“The cat is out of the bag,” the Likud said. “[Avigdor] Liberman signed a surplus agreement with Lapid and Gantz, after he publicly declared that he would support Gantz and Lapid for prime minister. Anyone who wants Netanyahu as Prime Minister must vote for Likud.”

Netanyahu later slammed Liberman as he was leaving Ukraine. “I say this sadly but today it is official. Liberman transfers votes from the Right to the Left,” Netanyahu said. “Those who want a left-wing government led by Lapid and Gantz vote for Liberman. Anyone who wants me to be prime minister of a right-wing [government] must vote Likud. Only a large Likud under my leadership will prevent the left-wing government.”

The Democratic Union attacked Blue and White, saying that by signing the agreement with Liberman, Blue and White was accepting his agenda of depriving citizenship to Arabs who are not deemed loyal, exchanges of populations, and episodes of corruption. “This is who Blue and White chose as a natural partner,” the Democratic Union said.

Yisrael Beytenu responded that the vote sharing agreement was merely technical, noting that the party had signed a deal with current Labor chairman Amir Peretz’s Am Ehad Party in the 1999 election. “Technically, there was no other option, and we did not want to risk losing the mandate we could gain from the deal,” Yisrael Beytenu said.

Liberman himself tweeted that he laughed at the Likud’s attack on him. “Netanyahu signed an agreement of surrender to Hamas,” he wrote. “I signed a vote sharing agreement with Blue and White, which I think is preferable.”

By the September 6 deadline to submit vote-sharing agreements to the Central Elections Committee, Likud will sign a deal with Yamina, Labor with the Democratic-Union, Shas with United Torah Judaism, and the Joint List will purposely not sign with any party.