Special Elections Survey

Prime Minister under investigation: 52% of the Israeli public (49.5% of Jews, 66% of Arabs) believes that Prime Minister Netanyahu should resign if the Attorney General recommends that he be indicted, while 35.5% believe he can continue serving as prime minister. Analyzing the findings by party indicates that only 8% of the Jewish Home and National Union voters, 10% of the Likud voters and 22% of Shas supporters think he should resign, as compared to 89% of Labor voters, 87% of the Joint List, 86.5% Israel Resilience, 83% Yesh Atid and 78% of all Kulanu voters.

Women’s representation in politics: 52% of the Jewish public declares that it is important to ensure that women rank high on their party’s list of candidates (and so –will have a realistic chance of being elected to the Knesset). There are significant differences between the political camps in this regard: 80% on the Left, 57% in the Center, and 45% on the Right hold this view. For men, the representation of women is less important than for women (in the Jewish public: 43% of men and 59% of women).

The right to vote for Israelis abroad: 52% of the Jewish public believes that Israelis living abroad should also have the right to vote. There are some differences by political camp on this opinion, although not very large. The significant percentage of those defining themselves as Leftists and support this view is surprising given the repeated claims that enabling Israelis abroad to vote will serve mainly the Right-wing camp.

Is it time to change the electoral system? 56% of the Israeli public supports the “semi-open ballot” method, which allows candidates to be ranked on the day of elections. Additionally, half of the Jewish population (51.5%) prefers the primaries system that allows them to exert influence and choose the list of party candidates for the Knesset. 61% of the Left, 57% of the Center, and 49% of the Right prefer to hold primaries.

In this context, more than half of the Israeli public (56%) supports the bill of the Largest Party Law and believes that the president should place the task of forming the government in the hands of the head of the party that received the most votes in the elections, compared with 26% who think that the government should be formed on the basis of a vote among MKs, with the MK receiving the largest number of votes appointed to form the government.

The survey was conducted by the Guttman Center for Public Opinion Research and Policy at the Israel Democracy Institute. The survey was conducted by telephone and on the Internet by the Midgam research institute on January 22-24, 2019. The sample included 600 respondents representing a representative national sample of the adult population of Israel aged 18 and over. The maximum sampling error for the entire sample – ± 4.1% at a confidence level of 95%. For the full data file see: www.dataisrael.idi.org.il