Sa’ar, Shasha-Biton propose electing half of Knesset directly

Israel would be divided into 60 constituencies that would be set by the Central Elections Committee using criteria set by the Knesset. The committee could change the constituencies every 10 years.

By GIL HOFFMAN
An empty Knesset Plenum (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
An empty Knesset Plenum
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Half of the Knesset’s 120 MKs should be chosen through direct regional elections, Likud MKs Gideon Sa’ar and Yifat Shasha-Biton proposed in a new bill they submitted on Monday.
The electoral reform bill proposed having the other half of the Knesset elected as it is now, in which Israelis vote for parties that submit their lists of candidates. But Sa’ar said he is open to making changes to achieve a consensus of support, such as initially only changing how a quarter of the MKs are elected, instead of half.
“Enabling citizens to elect their MKs directly would result in increased accountability,” Sa’ar told The Jerusalem Post. “It would also fix the problem of areas of the country being underrepresented, especially places far from the center of the country. It would help fulfill the Zionist vision.”
The country would be divided into 60 constituencies to be determined by the Central Elections Committee using criteria set by the Knesset. The committee could change the constituencies every 10 years.
Sa’ar proposed a similar bill in the 17th Knesset more than a decade ago. That bill had the support of some 90 MKs from the three largest parties at the time – Kadima, Labor and Likud. But it was vetoed by Shas, which had the right to block changes to the Basic Law in the coalition agreement.
Asked why he resubmitted the bill now, Sa’ar said he believed that when the coronavirus crisis will be over, “there will be a will and an expectation for changes in the electoral system and government system to build trust.”
Direct elections for prime minister were enacted in 1992 and repealed in 2001.
The recent trend of party leaders choosing their candidates has made MKs less independent and less connected to the citizens, Sa’ar said. He himself was first elected to the Knesset in a slot on the Likud list for a candidate from Tel Aviv, but the areas that need to be represented better are the Golan and development towns in the North and South, he said.
Germany elects its Bundestag in a mixed-member system combining proportional representation and regional first-past-the-post voting, similar to the proposal by Sa’ar and Shasha-Biton.
The Palestinians also chose their parliament that way in their last parliamentary election in 2006. But the Palestinian Authority decided to change its electoral system afterward, and it has not elected a new parliament since then.


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Yifat Shasha Biton