New Haredi Party Falls Short in Election Bid

Moti Leitner's "Hachareidi Ha'am" (The Haredi Public) party, which aimed to be an election surprise, garnered only 6,998 votes, representing 0.24% of the total, according to preliminary results from the Central Elections Committee as of 7:57 AM. This result fell short of expectations, even receiving fewer votes than the "Tzeva Shachor" (Black Color) party, which had 7,024 votes at the time. The outcome highlights Leitner's difficulty in translating criticism of the Haredi establishment into tangible political support, as his attempt to create a new political entity failed to gain traction despite existing dissatisfaction within parts of the Haredi community.

Leitner's campaign had largely banked on voters identifying with United Torah Judaism (UTJ), a major Haredi party. However, "Hachareidi Ha'am" significantly underperformed. UTJ, which consistently receives hundreds of thousands of votes, securing 280,194 votes and seven mandates in the November 2022 elections, received 200,220 votes in the recent election. This demonstrates that even when there is criticism of Haredi representation in the Knesset, it is challenging to convert that dissatisfaction into support for a rival party.

The results were particularly stark in Bnei Brak, a city strongly associated with the Haredi population. "Hachareidi Ha'am" received only 509 votes there after most ballot boxes were counted. Even non-Haredi parties, such as Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit, Likud, and Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism, received substantially more votes in the city, with Ben-Gvir receiving five times Leitner's vote count. This outcome casts doubt on the viability of presenting a new political path for the Haredi public, suggesting that dissatisfaction with the existing Haredi political system does not automatically translate into support for a new alternative party.