By Joseph Edegbo:
Israelis will go to the polls on April 9 to elect members of the 21st Knesset.
The elections had been due to hold November 2019 but were brought forward following a dispute among members of the ruling coalition government over a bill on National Service for the ultra- Orthodox Population.
The ruling Likud party of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has 30 of the 120 seats followed by Labour 19, Blue and White 11, Kulani 10 seats, while Shas and Ra’am- Balad have 7 each. The remaining seats are held by other smaller parties.
Elections in Israel are based on nationwide proportional representation.
The electoral threshold is currently set at 3.25%, with the number of seats a party receives in the Knesset being proportional to the number of votes it receives.
The Knesset is elected for a four-year term, although most governments have not served a full term and early elections are a frequent occurrence.
Israel has a multi-party system based on coalition governments as no party has ever won a majority of seats in a national election, although the Alignment briefly held a majority following its formation by an alliance of several different parties prior to the 1969 elections.
The legal voting age for Israeli citizens is 18. Elections are overseen by the Central Elections Committee and are held according to the Knesset Elections