BICOM

The Knesset is expected to vote in favour of its own dissolution today, signalling the start of an election campaign which will culminate in a March or April poll.

Party leaders are expected to meet this morning with Knesset Speaker Yuli Edlestein in order to decide a date for the election, with Maariv predicting 17 March as the likely polling day. Regulations specify that an election must be held between three to five months from the end of a Knesset’s term. This afternoon, the remaining government factions, Likud, Yisrael Beteinu and Jewish Home will support a preliminary reading of a bill to disperse the Knesset, which is set to be confirmed at second and third readings on Monday.

Both Channel Two and Channel Ten published snap polls last night in the wake of yesterday’s developments. Although such polls are often confounded by actual voting patterns, both indicated that if elections were held today Likud would garner 22 seats, with Jewish Home set to increase its share to 17 seats and Labour in third place on 13 mandates. Both polls showed a potentially strong showing for a new as yet unnamed party led by popular former-Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon, with Channel Two indicating it would accrue 12 seats. Meanwhile, Maariv this morning says that senior Shas leader Eli Yishai will set up his own rival party.

As the campaign unfolds, it is also possible that new alliances will be formed between existing parties, especially as the upcoming election will see the electoral threshold raised to 3.25 per cent of the vote. Already yesterday, the three Arab parties in the Knesset – United Arab List-Ta’al, Hadash and Balad – met to discuss the possibility of forming a united bloc. There will also be plenty of internal politicking within all parties during the coming weeks as party officials work to construct their list of parliamentary candidates.