 Soldiers' votes worth up to 4-5 mandates Feb. 11, 2009 REBECCA ANNA STOIL and jpost.com staff , THE JERUSALEM POST IDF soldiers vote in a military outpost near Efrat, Monday. The soldiers' votes could shift at least 4-5 mandates, potentially giving Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu a much needed boost. With the two biggest parties neck-and-neck in their race to prove that they should form the next government, the soldiers' votes could give Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu an extra boost to bring him to a dead heat in terms of mandates against Kadima, led by Tzipi Livni. But Netanyahu is far from the only politician keeping his fingers crossed for reinforcements in uniform. Meretz's Zehava Gal-On, who narrowly missed returning to the Knesset that has been her place of work for the last decade, could find herself back in should Meretz receive a surprise boost, and Habayit Hayehudi is also optimistic that veteran MK Nissan Slomiansky could be returned to the parliament when the last of the double-envelope ballots are counted. Soldiers, sailors, prisoners, the disabled and government employees working overseas all vote in special polling places, and their ballots, numbering in the tens of thousands, are submitted in a double envelope, with the outer envelope including personal information about the voter in order to prevent voter fraud. In addition to 700 polling stations at IDF and Border Police bases, double envelopes from 194 hospital polling stations, 1,319 stations for the disabled, 92 at embassies overseas and 56 in prisons need to be counted by Thursday afternoon. By mid-Thursday, 80 percent of soldier votes had been counted. According to reports, there was no indication that the votes would change any of the mandate distribution. The final election results will be published on Thursday evening. An estimated 4-5 mandates are up for grabs behind the double envelopes, enough to afford a nail-biting finish for politicians waiting anxiously for the final results in such a close election. Soldiers' ballots are usually generally reflective of the overall voting trends, but with a slight turn to the right in recent years. Zevulun Orlev, who barely returned to the Knesset as Habayit Hayehudi's No. 3 candidate, expressed a hope Wednesday afternoon that the high numbers of "knit yarmulkes" among the soldiers would give his party a much-needed boost that, combined with a surplus vote-sharing agreement with the National Union, would afford them an additional Knesset seat. At least one study, carried out by the University of Haifa's Dr. Tzvika Barkai, indicates that Orlev's hopes may not be in vain. After polling 800 soldiers before, during and after their military service, he discovered that the closer soldiers were to the time of their enlistment, the more right-wing they tended to vote. In general, he concluded, the popular assumption that soldiers' votes benefit parties from Likud rightward seemed to be accurate. Soldiers also frequently support smaller parties, but even so, the chances of any one of the small parties receiving the push necessary to make it over the minimum threshold are close to zero. This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1233304755621&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  The Race is On: Kadima, Likud, Woo Lieberman for CoalitionShevat 17, 5769, 11 February 09 01:34 by Hana Levi Julian(IsraelNN.com) The heads of the two leading parties, Kadima and Likud, have begun efforts to court the heads of the next two largest parties, Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home) and Shas, as they race against time to form competing government coalitions. Neither party emerged a clear winner in Tuesday's election, with Kadima winning only one mandate more than Likud – a slim majority that may well disappear after the votes are counted from soldiers, hospital shut-ins and members of the diplomatic corps abroad. Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni met Wednesday with top party officials Chaim Ramon, Meir Sheetrit, Dalia Itzik, Tzachi HaNegbi and Avi Dichter to decide what to offer Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman as enticement to join forces. The five officials will comprise Kadima's coalition negotiating team. Livni spoke with Lieberman early Wednesday afternoon at her office in the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem after meeting first with Meretz party chairman Chaim Oron. The dovish Meretz faction dropped to three Knesset seats after the polls closed. Yisrael Beiteinu, meanwhile, became the third largest party after receiving 15 mandates at the polls. At the same time, Likud chairman MK Binyamin Netanyahu was meeting with the head of the Shas Sephardic religious party, Eli Yishai, to negotiate support for his Likud-led coalition. Netanyahu is not wasting any time and has moved up his meeting with Lieberman, scheduled for Thursday, to later in the day on Wednesday to discuss the Likud's proposal for Yisrael Beiteinu to join a Likud-led coalition. Professor Yaakov Ne'eman will head the Likud's negotiating team, said Netanyahu. Final election results won't be posted until February 18, after all the votes from soldiers and Foreign Service personnel are counted. President Shimon Peres will not begin coalition talks with political party heads until all of the results are clear, said his spokeswoman, Ayelet Frish. |
Thursday, 12 February 2009
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