Official CEC Framework
Instead of voting for individual constituency MPs or directly for a Prime Minister, Israeli citizens cast a single paper ballot for a closed party list. The order of candidates on each list is pre-determined prior to election day via party primaries (held by parties such as Likud, The Democrats, and Religious Zionism) or by party leaders and committees.
Explainer Table: How a Knesset Election Works
| Electoral Mechanism | Official Statutory Rule | Practical Political Impact |
| Parliamentary Size | 120 seats (Knesset); 61 seats required for a governing majority. | Forces multi-party coalitions; gives small ideological or sectarian factions kingmaker leverage. |
| Voting System | Single nationwide district; closed-list proportional representation using manual paper ballots. | Eliminates local “gerrymandering” and cyber-tampering risks, though MPs are accountable to party lists rather than geographic constituencies. |
| Electoral Threshold | 3.25% of total valid votes (equivalent to roughly 4 seats). | Votes cast for lists failing to reach 3.25% are discarded. Prompts smaller factions to form technical alliances before election day to avoid wasting hundreds of thousands of bloc votes. |
| Seat Allocation (Bader-Ofer Method) | Uses the Bader-Ofer formula (a D’Hondt highest-averages variant) to distribute remaining surplus seats. | Slightly favours larger lists and parties that sign pre-election surplus-vote agreements (Heskem Odafim) to pool leftover votes before calculation. |
| Presidential Mandate | Following official results, the President consults all Knesset factions and assigns a candidate 28 days (extendable by up to 14 days) to form a coalition. | Finishing first in the popular vote does not guarantee the premiership; the mandate goes to whichever MP can command 61 votes. |
| Campaign Financing | State funding units allocated per seat; lists winning at least 1% of valid votes (even if below 3.25%) receive one funding unit. | Lowers barriers for new parties whilst penalising fringe lists that win less than 1% of the vote. |
| Disqualification Criteria | Section 7A of Basic Law: The Knesset bars lists that negate Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, incite racism, or support armed struggle against Israel. | Decisions by the CEC (chaired by a Supreme Court Justice) are subject to mandatory review and frequent reversal by the High Court of Justice. |
Evolution of the Electoral Threshold
To curb extreme parliamentary fragmentation, the Knesset has raised the statutory entry threshold four times since 1949:
- 1949–1992 (1st to 12th Knesset): 1.0% (allowed single-seat factions to enter parliament).
- 1992–2003 (13th to 16th Knesset): 1.5%.
- 2006–2013 (17th to 19th Knesset): 2.0% (enacted in May 2004).
- 2015–Present (20th to 26th Knesset): 3.25% (enacted in March 2014; guarantees any qualifying list a minimum of 4 seats).
