Netanyahu considers canceling Knesset elections

Benjamin Netanyahu Photo: Eyal Izhar
Benjamin Netanyahu Photo: Eyal Izhar

The Prime Minister is mulling support for Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein's attempts to revoke the law dispersing the Knesset.

Just a few minutes after Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein confirmed that he was examining the feasibility of revoking the law dispersing the Knesset, the Prime Minister's spokesperson said that Benjamin Netanyahu was taking Edelstein's proposal very seriously and would consider it over the next few days.

Edelstein is examining the legal feasibility of revoking the Law dispersing the 21st Knesset, which was elected on April 9, and thus canceling the elections for the 22nd Knesset on September 17.

However, the legal hurdles facing such a move are formidable and seem insurmountable. The Attorney General has reportedly told politicians privately that there is no feasible way to cancel the elections.

Ehud Barak, who is in the process of setting up a new party to run in the September elections tweeted that canceling the elections would be 'corruption Netanyahu-style.'

There have been suggestions that a two-thirds majority of 80 out of 120 Knesset members would be enough to cancel the elections. The only similar such event to take place was in 1973 in the height of the Yom Kippur War when elections were postponed by two months.

Clause 9A of the Knesset Basic Law does allow elections to be postponed in special circumstances but does not allow for the cancelation of elections.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on June 25, 2019

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2019

Benjamin Netanyahu Photo: Eyal Izhar
Benjamin Netanyahu Photo: Eyal Izhar
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