Baku-APA. The three main Israeli parties that will apparently make up the next government agreed on a dramatic electoral reform to raise the threshold for parties running for Knesset (parliament), local media reported on Wednesday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.
The Likud, HaBayit HaYehudi (The Jewish Home) party and Yesh Atid party all agreed to promote the proposal, based on private bill proposal issued by MK (member of Knesset) Danny Danon (Likud) to raise the threshold necessary to get into the parliament from two to four percent of the votes.
"The low election threshold has created multiple small parties, some of which have only a minor impact in the Knesset," Danon wrote in an attachment to the bill proposal.
"The current threshold has also created a false representation of politics by suggesting that it's easy to cross the threshold. There are many parties who fail to meet the threshold and then the voters aren't represented in the Knesset and their votes go to waste," he said.
The demand for the new bill will be added to the final coalition agreement which is set to be signed within the upcoming days and be legislated as a governmental bill.
The meaning of this reform is that fewer parties would be able to reach the parliament. For instance, in the Jan. 22 elections, 12 parties crossed the two-percent threshold but only eight parties crossed the four-percent one.
This reform would mainly hurt the Arab parties, which are divided into three parties each of which has about three to four lawmakers. Such a move would force them to unite even though there are big differences in their views and the things they represent for their Arab voters.
According to an unidentified member of the Likud who talked with the Ma'ariv daily on Wednesday, the decision to raise the threshold was reached a while ago and its publication now is used as a "political spin."
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