Israeli Parties Forge Alliances Ahead of October 2026 Elections to Maximize Knesset Seats
Translated & summarized from Channel 9 by baba
Israeli parties are forming "residual vote" agreements before the October 27, 2026, elections to prevent votes from being wasted and maximize Knesset seats. As of October 13, five pairs have agreed, including Likud with Religious Zionism. Parties like "Otzma Yehudit" and "Blue and White" had not yet finalized deals by the October 16 deadline. These pacts allow allied parties to pool leftover votes to secure additional seats using the Bader-Ofer method.
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- Israeli parties are forming "residual vote" agreements before the October 27, 2026, elections to maximize Knesset seats.
- Five pairs of parties, including Likud and Religious Zionism, had announced alliances by October 13.
- Parties like "Otzma Yehudit" and "Blue and White" had not yet finalized partnerships by the October 16 deadline.
- These agreements allow allied parties to pool leftover votes to secure additional parliamentary seats.
- The Bader-Ofer method is used to distribute remaining seats, with pacts enabling parties to act as a single bloc.
As Israel prepares for the Knesset elections on October 27, 2026, political parties are actively forming "residual vote" agreements to ensure their votes translate into parliamentary seats. These pacts are crucial for maximizing representation by preventing votes from being wasted on parties that do not cross the electoral threshold. As of October 13, five pairs of parties have announced such agreements, primarily involving those with a strong likelihood of passing the 3.25% vote threshold.
Notable alliances include Naftali Bennett's "Yachad" with Avigdor Lieberman's "Yisrael Beiteinu," and Gadi Eisenkot's "Yashar!" with Yair Golan's "Democrats." The United Arab List, led by Yousef Jabareen, has partnered with Mansour Abbas's Ra'am party. Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud has joined forces with Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism, while Aryeh Deri's Shas and Yaakov Asher's United Torah Judaism signed their deal on October 11.
Several parties, however, had not yet finalized their partnerships by the latest reports. These include Itamar Ben-Gvir's "Otzma Yehudit," Ofer Winter's "Amcha Yisrael," the Reservists and Economists Party associated with Yoaz Hendel and the associated with the Reservists and Economists Party, and Benny Gantz's "Blue and White." The deadline for these agreements is October 16.
Residual vote agreements allow two parties that both pass the electoral threshold to pool their leftover votes. If these combined votes are sufficient to secure an additional Knesset seat, one of the parties can claim it. This mechanism, however, does not obligate parties to vote together in the Knesset or form a coalition. The Bader-Ofer method, used since 1973 for distributing remaining seats, involves dividing a party's votes by its current seat count plus one. Residual vote pacts enable allied parties to be treated as a single bloc in this calculation, potentially securing an extra seat, as seen when an "Avoda"-Meretz agreement helped Meretz gain a seat in the 2021 elections.
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