Early elections for the twentieth Knesset were held in Israel on 17 March 2015. Disagreements within the governing coalition, particularly over the budget and a "Jewish state" proposal, led to the dissolution of the government in December 2014. The Labor Party and Hatnuah formed a coalition, called Zionist Union, with the hope of defeating the Likud party, which had led the previous governing coalition along with Yisrael Beiteinu, Yesh Atid, The Jewish Home, and Hatnuah.
The incumbent Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud, declared victory in the election, with Likud picking up the highest number of votes. President Reuven Rivlin granted Netanyahu an extension until 6 May 2015 to build a coalition when one had not been finalized in the first four weeks of negotiations. He formed a coalition government within two hours of the midnight 6 May deadline. His Likud party formed the coalition with the Jewish Home, United Torah Judaism, Kulanu, and Shas, with the bare minimum 61 seats. Yisrael Beiteinu later joined the coalition in May 2016.
Background
During late November and early December 2014, there were serious disagreements between parties in the governing coalition, particularly over the budget and a "Jewish state" proposal. On 2 December, Likud announced it would support a dissolution bill, with a vote scheduled for 8 December. Hours later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Tzipi Livni and Yair Lapid from their cabinet portfolios. In the first reading of the dissolution bill on 3 December, it was approved by a vote of 84–0, with one abstention. The second and third readings were held on 8 December, with the third reading passing with a vote of 93–0.
The final election turnout was 72.3%, 4.6% higher than in the previous election and the highest since the 1999 elections, which saw a 78.7% turnout.
Initially, exit polls reported a virtual tie between the Likud and the Zionist Union, a coalition headed by Leader of the Opposition Isaac Herzog and former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni. Both Netanyahu and Herzog began attempts to build a coalition in preparation for a possible government, with Herzog calling Netanyahu's statement "premature". However, when the counting of the votes on 18 March 2015 revealed a significant lead for Likud, Herzog acknowledged that "the only realistic option" was to remain in the opposition. He stated in a 19 March 2015 post-election interview that he still hopes to be the prime minister.
Date
During the meeting held with Speaker Yuli-Yoel Edelstein on setting the date of the election, Likud and the Jewish Home favoured 10 March, the Labor Party requested 17 March, Shas and United Torah Judaism preferred 24 March, whilst the Arab parties requested that the elections be delayed until May. The date was ultimately set for 17 March.
Calendar
29 January 2015 – Deadline for parties to submit final Knesset candidate lists to the Central Elections Commission 5 March 2015 – Election Day for members of Israeli diplomatic missions – Israeli diplomatic staff, their spouses, and Jewish Agency representatives vote, with ballot boxes set up in 96 Israeli diplomatic missions worldwide. 13 March 2015 – Deadline for publishing election polls and predictions 15 March 2015 – Election day for serving soldiers. 668 ballot boxes set up on military bases, and mobile polling stations are deployed to travel between remote army posts. Serving soldiers may vote from this day to the end of the elections. 16 March 2015 – Starting from 19:00 campaigning using assemblies, meetings, speakers, and media is prohibited. 17 March 2015 – Election Day. Most polling stations for the general public opened at 7:00 AM, although some polling stations in rural communities, hospitals, and prisons opened an hour later. Some 10,372 polling stations were set up, including 56 ballot boxes in prisons and 255 ballot boxes in hospitals. Polls in prisons closed at 9:20 PM. Polling stations open to the general public closed at 10:00 PM. Hospital staff and emergency room patients who were not able to vote while polling stations were open were issued special documents allowing them to vote after 10:00 PM.
Electoral system
The 120 seats in the Knesset are elected by proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency. The electoral threshold for the 2013 elections was 2%, but on 11 March 2014, the Knesset voted to raise the threshold to 3.25%. The vote was boycotted by the opposition. In almost all cases, this is equivalent to a minimum party size of four seats, but on rare occasions, a party can end up with three.