Arab Parties Ra'am and Hadash-Ta'al Sign Vote-Sharing Deal

The Arab parties Ra'am and the Joint List have signed a surplus vote agreement ahead of the upcoming elections, aiming to prevent wasted votes. The agreement stipulates a "fair and clean election campaign, without slander, defamation, incitement, or fraud," and calls on activists and supporters to maintain respectful discourse despite political differences. The deal will be submitted to the Central Elections Committee after party candidacies are approved.

In the previous election, the three Arab parties ran separately without a surplus vote agreement, leading to the Balad party failing to pass the electoral threshold in 2022. This new agreement seeks to avoid a repeat of such vote wastage.

This development follows similar agreements made by other political blocs. Four parties from the "Change Bloc", along with Yisrael Beiteinu and Yesh Atid, also signed surplus vote agreements. Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of Yesh Atid, took credit for organizing the bloc, stating his efforts facilitated these internal agreements as a lesson from past elections. The parties expressed satisfaction that every vote for change would contribute to electing a new government and prevent lost votes.

Meanwhile, the Likud party is reportedly expected to sign a surplus vote agreement with the Religious Zionism party, complicating matters for the Otzma Yehudit party, which is reportedly unwilling to sign an agreement with "Am Israel." A surplus vote agreement allows two parties to be treated as a single entity for the distribution of remaining parliamentary seats after the initial allocation, thereby maximizing their chances of gaining additional mandates and preventing votes from being discarded.