After 671 days, the members of the 19th Knesset voted last night to dissolve the Knesset and hold elections. The election campaign has thus officially begun, and Israeli voters will go to the polls on March 17, 2015 to exercise their democratic right.
Until the last minute, there were rumors in the Knesset of moves to form an alternative coalition, but these proved unfounded, and Israel now has a transition government.
Knesset speaker Yuli-Yoel Edelstein said after the vote, "Frequent unscheduled elections are not desirable. They are even damaging and superfluous. The public rightly regards this election doubtfully, and even with revulsion. But although early elections are undesirable, in present circumstances they are the least of all evils."
Meanwhile, veteran Likud MK Limor Livnat, who is Minister of Culture and Sport and who has been Minister of Communications and Minister of Education, has announced that she will not stand for re-election and is leaving politics.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 9, 2014
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