To postpone or not to postpone?

<- Israeli election ballots. You get an envelope and you place your party's ballot in the envelope. Then you put the envelope in the voting box. Blanks exist if you wish to register no choice.


A big debate going on these days is to whether or not postpone the Israeli elections. As it stands, the Israeli elections are scheduled for February 10th which is exactly a month from now. Typically in the past, Israeli parties have had over two months to campaign and TV advertising should have started by now. As of right now, no advertising has begun and the parties are on a campaign halt that began at the start of the conflict.

One might think that this is a highly secondary issue given the implications of the military campaign. I would beg to differ. Democracies thrive on elections which are properly carried out. This means a campaign period where all parties are fully going out and campaigning for votes and the voters render a fair judgment.

The argument against postponing the vote has been made by Benjamin Netanyahu. The cynic says that he is doing this because he is in the lead and if it holds, will be entrusted with forming the next government. However, Netanyahu makes a valid point. The only precedent for delaying the vote came in 1973 when the Yom Kippur War broke out and pushed the election all the way to New Year's Eve. Netanyahu claims now that if the elections are postponed, it will send the wrong message to the Arabs. I'm iffy on that rationale.

While I want the Likud Party to win the election, I want an election period that gives all the parties ample time to present their case. The domination of news coverage on the war on Hamas has taken away all opportunity to do so.





The current election date favors Likud (13 seats right now), Kadima (26) and Labor (19) and to an extent the middle-ranged parties like Shas (10) and Yisrael Beitenu (12). A postponement in the election requires the support of 80 MKs. Those parties among them currently hold 80 MKs so it will be a tall order to change the election date.





The current polls have Likud at 31, Kadima at 27 and Labor at 16. The other two are pretty much at the same range as the outgoing Knesset.





In my opinion, it is not a propaganda victory for Hamas if the elections are postponed. They are battered and bruised. Israel will be signalling that it put politics aside to deal with the conflict full square. It will be saying that it put aside the distraction of an election to focus on its own security. The current Knesset was elected in 2006 and it had until 2010 to call an election. There is nothing wrong with postponing now in the name of a better democratic exercise down the line.