The 23rd Knesset was dissolved - Israel goes for election 4th time in less than two yers

The 23rd Knesset dissolved and Israel entered a fourth election campaign within two years after failing to approve a budget for the State of Israel for 2020 until Tuesday at midnight. Meanwhile, the Constitution Committee unanimously approved on second and third reading the temporary directive for conducting the elections to the 24th Knesset during the Corona crisis.
The Speaker of the Knesset, MK Yariv Levin, concludes the plenary session to dissolve the 23rd Knesset: Challenges, and yet also controversial.The controversies that exist in the public, found their expression naturally here in this building as well.
We are embarking on a difficult election campaign, I call on each and every one of us, and each and every one of the citizens of Israel, to refrain from exacerbating tensions and to do everything possible so that the election campaign is conducted and ends in an orderly manner and without violence.
I thank all the members of the Knesset, the Knesset management and the Knesset staff for their great effort to maintain a parliamentary routine under the complicated conditions of this challenging period. "

Why elections?

The coalition agreement between the Likud and Blue and White, signed a little less than a year ago, stipulates that a biennial state budget for the years 2020-2021 must be transferred. Towards the time of the budget transfer, the Likud insisted on transferring a budget only for 2020, a move that in blue and white was seen as a violation of the coalition agreement, which means that the rotation between Netanyahu and Ganz will not materialize. The crisis was resolved through the "Hauser compromise" - the Basic Law of the Knesset was amended so that it was determined that the state budget must receive the approval of the Knesset by December 23, 2020.
In recent days, there has been a great attempt by coalition members to amend the Basic Law again and postpone the deadline for approving the budget, but at the last minute, the second and third time Knesset members were called to vote, MKs Michal Shir, Assaf Zamir, Miki Haimovich and Ram Shefa appeared in the plenum. The initiative and buried the chances of the current government surviving.
Since the state budget has not been approved by the set date - the Knesset is automatically dispersed according to law. This is the first time that the Knesset has dispersed due to non-transfer of budget. However, according to Dr. Assaf Shapira of the Israel Democracy Institute, there have been cases in the past in which the Knesset was dissolved on the grounds that a budget could not be transferred. 

Ballot committee members will be protected

The discussion in the Knesset's Constitution Committee flooded Rabin's disagreements between the Ministry of Health and the Central Election Commission, regarding the question of how to preserve the right to vote of every person - and also his health.Central Election Commission Director General Orly Adas said that at present the number of voters in all Yucatan ballots will be protected, the members of the polling committees will be protected, in each polling station there will be means of disinfection for workers and voters and consideration is being given to polling stations inside nursing homes.

"If the Ministry of Health takes a series of proper and correct steps right now - maybe on election day we will only reach hundreds of patients and the problems will be solved," Adas said.
To solve the problem of voter turnout at the polls, the Election Commission will work on other solutions such as adding polling stations and reducing the number of voters at each polling station. To protect the elderly population, who are at risk from the corona virus, polling stations will be set up in nursing homes whose votes will be counted along with the rest of the double envelopes. Nurses from outside, except at polling stations, will not be allowed to enter nursing homes.
Members of the polling station committee at the same institution will undergo a corona examination 72 hours before entering the nursing home and will not be replaced during the same day.
Even during the Corona period, the voting method will remain as it has been to this day - voting using a paper note inserted into an envelope - and to the ballot box. The Election Commission expressed opposition to the Ministry of Health's proposal to hold the election online or by mail for fear of fraud in the election and other disruptions.
"The Ministry of Health's proposals are unrealistic. It does not make sense to change the electoral system now," Adas said. "Such a dramatic change can only be passed in legislation."
The Central Election Commission will set up separate polling stations for the isolated and separate polling stations for Corona patients - which will be placed at a sufficient distance from the other polling stations in order to prevent contact between voters. The Election Commission clarified that at the moment it is not possible to hold a shuttle to the polls and that the Ministry of Health should trust the voters not to go outside beyond the voting time.
In every municipality or local or regional council in which registered voters have the right to vote, at least one ballot box for patients and one ballot box for non-sick debtors will be placed. Regarding all polling stations, the chairman of the election committee, in consultation with the deputies and the director general of the Ministry of Health, will determine the provisions that will apply to all polling stations and voters who come to vote - such as gathering restrictions, maximum occupancy, maintaining hygiene, questioning at the entrance and more.
The big concern now is that it is not possible to know how many corona and isolated patients will be until election day so it is difficult to estimate in advance how many polling stations will be required and where they will be placed.