Next Israeli Legislative Election

Legislative elections are expected to be held in Israel by 27 October 2026 to elect the members of the twenty-sixth Knesset.

Background

After the 36th government lost its majority, the 2022 snap election was called. This resulted in the Netanyahu bloc gaining a majority, and a government was successfully negotiated between Likud, Otzma Yehudit, Noam, Religious Zionist Party, United Torah Judaism and Shas. The coalition was sworn in on 29 December 2022.

With this new government, Netanyahu returned to the premiership, having previously been out of that office since the anti-Netanyahu bloc won a majority in the 2021 election and formed a government without Netanyahu's Likud.

Five members of Blue and White (Benny Gantz, Gadi Eizenkot, Gideon Sa'ar, Hili Tropper and Yifat Shasha-Biton), joined the government in October 2023 following the outbreak of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war.

Electoral system

The 120 seats in the Knesset are elected by closed list proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency. The electoral threshold for the election is 3.25%.

Two parties can sign a surplus vote agreement that allows them to compete for leftover seats as if they were running together on the same list. The Bader–Ofer method slightly favours larger lists, meaning that alliances are more likely to receive leftover seats than parties would be individually. If the alliance receives leftover seats, the Bader–Ofer calculation is applied privately, to determine how the seats are divided among the two allied lists.

Timing

Per sections 8 and 9 of the Israeli quasi-constitutional Basic Law: Knesset, an election will typically be called approximately 4 years after the previous election, on the first or third Tuesday of the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, depending on whether or not the previous year was a Jewish Leap Year. An election can happen earlier if the government falls and the Knesset is dissolved, or later if the Knesset's term is extended by a supermajority vote.

The next election is scheduled to be held no later than 27 October 2026.

After the Simchat Torah massacre and subsequent Israel-Hamas war, some have called for the resignation of Prime Minister Netanyahu, with polls suggesting that more than 75% of Israelis believe he should step down. There have also been calls for a snap election once the war is over. Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur said that an election should occur within 90 days of the end of the war, although he later walked those statements back. Polling suggests that 64% of Israelis believe that an election should happen as soon as the war is over.

Political parties

2022 election results

The table below lists the results of 2022 Israeli legislative election.

Leadership elections and primaries

Leadership elections were held by some parties to determine party leadership ahead of the election. Primary elections were held by some parties in advance of the national election to determine the composition of their party list.

Labor

The leadership election for the Israeli Labor Party is expected to be held in early 2024; current party leader Merav Michaeli announced on 7 December 2023 that she was calling an early leadership election that she would not run in. In response, Meretz chairman Tomer Reznik urged Labor to hold joint primaries with Meretz.

Opinion polls

This graph shows the polling trends from the 2022 Israeli legislative election until the next election day using a 4-poll moving average. Scenario polls are not included here. For parties not crossing the electoral threshold (currently 3.25%) in any given poll, the number of seats is calculated as a percentage of the 120 total seats.

See also

* List of next general elections

References

{{portal bar, Israel, Modern history, Politics

Israel
2027