Israel readies for fifth election in over three years

(22 Oct 2022) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: ASSOCIATED PRESS Shoham, Israel - 20 October 2022 1. Workers preparing voting material at Central Election Committee logistics centre 2. Close of logo 3. Worker moving voting material and placing them on machine 4. Zoom out of machine wrapping boxes of voting material 5. Wide of voting material at centre 6. Close of paper on boxes reading (Hebrew) "Beersheba" 7. SOUNDBITE (Hebrew) Yaacov Harari, deputy director of the Central Election Committee logistics centre: "We are the final straight of the elections, we started distribution of about 12,000 ballots to all over the country, to army camps, prisons, hospitals, we have special ballots for COVID (patients), we will meet all goals, as we did in all previous elections." 8. Name of Israeli parties on notes on wall 9. Mid of name of Israeli parties on notes 10. Close of Yesh Atid party's note reading (Hebrew) "Yesh Atid, led by Yair Lapid for Prime Minister" 11. Various of notes 12. Close of Likud party's note reading (Hebrew) "Likud, let by Benjamin Netanyahu for Prime Minister" 13. Close of ballot box 14. SOUNDBITE (Hebrew) Yaacov Harari, deputy director of the Central Election Committee logistics centre: "We have entered a routine in the last three years and half of five elections, we already trained in this thing. What I hope and what everyone hopes that these are the last elections for the upcoming period." 15. Various of forklift moving voting material into truck STORYLINE: Israelis are preparing to return to the polls on Nov. 1 where they will wearily confront a familiar choice. The elections, like the last four, are expected to be a hard-fought race between former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, and a constellation of parties from across the political spectrum that believe he is unfit to rule. Israelis vote by party, and in the country's 74-year history, no single faction has won a majority in the 120-member parliament, known as the Knesset. So after every election, any would-be prime minister must form alliances in order to cobble together a majority of at least 61 seats. After nearly every election, attention focuses on one or more potential kingmakers and their particular demands. Thirteen parties were elected to parliament, for instance, in last year's election. This can result in weeks of negotiations and horse-trading among various party leaders. If no one can assemble a majority, as happened after elections in April and September 2019, the country goes back to the polls and the government remains in place as a caretaker. Netanyahu was Israel's longest-serving prime minister, and his Likud party came in first or a narrow second in all four elections. But he was never able to form a right-wing majority because some of his ideological allies — including former aides — refuse to partner with him. Even if Netanyahu and his allies secure more seats, they could fall short of a majority yet again. If that happens, it would be left to many of the same parties that formed the outgoing government to cobble together a new coalition, one that would face the same stressors as the last one. =========================================================== Clients are reminded: (i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: [email protected] Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...