Far-Right Leader Ben-Gvir Refuses Surplus Vote Deal With Rival

Otzma Yehudit Chairman Itamar Ben-Gvir announced Tuesday he will not sign a surplus vote agreement with Ofer Winter, leaving him the only figure in the "Netanyahu bloc" without such a deal. Surplus vote agreements are only valid if both parties pass the electoral threshold. Yoaz Hendel, from the "Reservists" party which joined Yaron Zelicha, had already stated he would not sign with Ben-Gvir, calling him "Bennett 2."

Ben-Gvir echoed a Likud campaign message in a social media post, accusing Winter of being "Bennett 2." The Likud party has been focusing its efforts on swaying voters and has launched an aggressive, funded campaign across social media targeting Winter. This campaign includes dozens of videos and quotes from candidates, some from years ago, aimed at deterring voters and preventing Winter's party from crossing the electoral threshold.

Winter himself accused Netanyahu on Monday of undermining right-wing parties. In an interview at the "People of the State" conference hosted by ynet and Yediot Ahronot, Winter stated that if his party fails to pass the threshold, Netanyahu would be to blame. "I will say that whoever is guilty of the right's downfall is Benjamin Netanyahu, who does not stop and does not relent and shoots us in the back even though we are a right-wing party," Winter said, adding, "He who shoots himself in the foot should not be surprised if he limps afterward."

A surplus vote agreement is a pre-election pact between two Knesset lists to cooperate in distributing surplus mandates. The goal is to prevent votes from going to waste if a party falls short of a full mandate, allowing those votes to help an allied party gain an additional seat. The agreements are crucial for maximizing seat gains in the final stages of mandate distribution after the initial count and initial mandate allocation based on the electoral threshold. The calculation treats the allied parties as a single entity for the purpose of distributing the remaining mandates, giving them an advantage in the final calculations.