by JNS Staff
Who decides which candidates will enter the Knesset? How is the prime minister chosen?
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More than 7.3 million Israeli citizens are eligible to vote in the upcoming election for the Knesset on Oct. 27, with some 810,000 of them living abroad, according to data released on Wednesday by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.
A national holiday by law, schools, kindergartens and most workplaces are expected to be closed for Election Day, as millions of citizens will take to more than 11,000 polling stations operating across the country to elect the 26th Knesset.
Proportional representation
Israeli democracy is based on a parliamentary system of proportional representation. This means that Israeli citizens do no vote directly for a prime minister or district representatives. They vote for a party that runs in a single, nationwide constituency, where the legislative body—the Knesset—has 120 seats.
A vote for a party is a vote for a list of Knesset candidates. The 120 Knesset seats are divided proportionally to the number of votes that each party wins. Thus, if a single party won 50% of the valid votes, it would secure 60 Knesset seats.
No party has ever won a majority of the votes, so every government has been formed by a coalition of parties.
In addition, parties must receive at least 3.25% of the valid votes to enter the Knesset; votes cast for parties that fail to reach this electoral threshold are discarded.
Choosing a prime minister
Although typically the leader of the largest party becomes prime minister, this is not always the case. The law stipulates that the Israeli president designates the member of the Knesset who has the best chance of forming a coalition with the task of forming a government.
The designated member of Knesset must present the proposed government and its policy guidelines to the Knesset and win its approval before taking office as prime minister.
If the designated member of Knesset is unable to do this, the president designates another member of Knesset to try.
The prime minister must moreover hold a Knesset seat while serving as the head of the government. Other ministers are not required to be lawmakers.
The Israeli president is elected by the Knesset for a seven-year tenure. Israel’s current president, Isaac Herzog, is scheduled to end his term in July 2028.
Who can run?
Any Israeli over the age of 21 can stand for election to the Knesset, unless he or she has been disqualified from being elected by the courts.
Candidates or factions can also be disqualified if they are found to violate Section 7A of Basic Law: The Knesset, which prohibits a candidate or a political party from negating the Jewish and democratic identity of the State of Israel, inciting to racism, or supporting an armed struggle against the Jewish state.
How does the voting work?
Every citizen over the age of 18 can vote for the Knesset.
Each voter is assigned to a specific polling station near his or her place of residence, as listed in the Population Registry, and may vote only at that station.
Exceptional cases allow for alternate polling stations. These, for example, include soldiers who may vote at polling stations on IDF bases, hospital inpatients, prisoners and detainees, and certain Israeli officials and representatives serving abroad. In some cases, police officers, prison guards and on-duty security personnel may vote at designated stations where their duties prevent them from voting at their regular station.
Polling-station committee members and secretaries may vote at the station where they are working, subject to the applicable rules.
People with restricted mobility may vote at a special accessible polling station rather than their assigned station.
Women staying in domestic-violence shelters can vote through special arrangements intended to protect their safety.
Israelis abroad, other than certain officials and representatives, and in some cases their spouses, cannot vote.
Behind the voting booth
Behind the voting booth, the citizen selects a paper ballot with two or three letters that symbolize a political faction and seals it in a blue envelope.
The regular ballot boxes are subsequently counted at the regular stations across the country while the special ballot boxes are transported to the Knesset and undergo a series of processes to verify the eligibility and integrity of the votes.
The vote-counting process is carried out under the close supervision of the Central Elections Committee, as well as observers who represent the outgoing Knesset factions, the Knesset Guard, and Election Integrity Inspectors, with professional guidance from the Central Elections Committee’s Legal Office and dozens of attorneys and legal experts hired for this purpose.
How do elections work in Israel? Who gets to vote? And how is Israel's prime minister chosen? 🇮🇱🗳️ Here's a simple guide to Israeli democracy, from casting a ballot to forming a government. https://t.co/RUs8EJkjSv
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) October 23, 2026
More than a century of democracy
On Thursday, Israel’s Foreign Ministry posted on X an explainer with historical background about Israel’s democratic nature.
It states that decades before the state’s establishment, “the Zionist movement had already established a political culture rooted in vigorous debate, competing ideas and democratic decision-making. Delegates elected to Zionist congresses debated the future of the Jewish people, voted on policies and built the institutions that would transform the dream of Jewish self-determination into a national reality.”
Decades before women gained the right to vote in many other countries, the Second Zionist Congress in 1898 granted female delegates full voting rights.
“Israel’s Declaration of Independence promised complete equality of social and political rights to all citizens, regardless of religion, race or sex. It guaranteed freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture,” the ministry continues.
Despite the war that ensued after Israel’s formation, the leaders of the state kept their word to uphold the declaration’s principles and held the first official national election on Jan. 25, 1949, eight months after independence.
A World Economic Forum ranking from 2019 places Israel among the world’s 20 oldest continuous democracies.
Although since its inception Israel has faced “wars, terrorism, security threats, political upheavals and profound social change,” it has always maintained its commitment to parliamentary democracy, the Foreign Ministry states.
“Israel’s democracy was born in adversity. Its endurance is one of the country’s greatest achievements,” it adds.
“Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Druze citizens, from cities and countryside, religious and secular, from every background and community, will participate [on Oct. 27] in the same democratic process. They may disagree profoundly about Israel’s future, but each has an equal vote in determining it,” the ministry says.
On October 27, Israel’s biggest decisions begin with one small slip of paper. 🗳️🇮🇱 In a region where many cannot choose their leaders, Israelis of all backgrounds and faiths cast their votes. Discover Israeli democracy in action. Read more below. https://t.co/DP9bFPzGbW
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) October 22, 2026
JNS Staff
Source: https://www.jns.org/news/israel-news/what-you-need-to-know-about-israels-election
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