Partial school day, work as usual: Program considered for Third Election

Due to fear of significant economic damage to the Israeli economy in the event of another, third election in the same year, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon has begun to consider formulating an outline for holding elections without issuing an additional public holiday, which would effectively cancel work for the day. The plan, details of which were released by Channel 13 on Thursday, would attempt to “do the impossible” by holding elections on the same day without making any changes to the regular working day. Under the plan, the school day would run until noon, with polling stations opening at 2 p.m. until midnight, in order to give people enough time to vote. However, it is unclear how the plan will manage setting up polling stations in schools within the time frame of two hours without sacrificing the sanctity of the election process. According to estimates, the cost of single sabbatical day is valued at NIS 1.5 billion, which, combined with a non-functioning government and inability to manage the state budget, may reap even greater damage on the Israeli economy.