| Israel |
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Elections for the fourteenth Knesset were held in Israel on 29 May 1996. Voter turnout was 79.3%.[1]
The 1996 elections included two new changes, both designed to increase the stability of the Knesset. First, the Prime Minister was to be elected on a separate ballot from the remaining members of the Knesset. Second, the election threshold for allocation of a seat was raised to 2% from 1.5%.
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| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labor Party 1 2 | 818,741 | 26.8 | 34 | -10 |
| Likud-Gesher-Tzomet 2 3 | 767,401 | 25.1 | 32 | -8 |
| Shas | 259,796 | 8.5 | 10 | +4 |
| National Religious Party 4 | 240,271 | 7.8 | 9 | +3 |
| Meretz 5 | 226,275 | 7.4 | 9 | -3 |
| Yisrael BaAliyah 6 | 174,994 | 5.7 | 7 | New |
| Hadash-Balad 7 | 129,455 | 4.2 | 5 | +2 |
| United Torah Judaism 8 | 98,657 | 3.2 | 4 | 0 |
| The Third Way 9 | 96,474 | 3.1 | 4 | New |
| United Arab List | 89,514 | 2.9 | 4 | New |
| Moledet 10 | 72,002 | 2.4 | 2 | -1 |
| Unity for the Defence of New Immigrants | 22,741 | 0.7 | 0 | New |
| Gil | 14,935 | 0.5 | 0 | New |
| Progressive Confederation | 13,983 | 0.5 | 0 | New |
| Telem Emuna | 12,737 | 0.4 | 0 | New |
| Settlement Party | 5,533 | 0.2 | 0 | New |
| Yamin Israel | 2,845 | 0.1 | 0 | New |
| Man's Rights in the Family Party | 2,388 | 0.1 | 0 | New |
| Ta'al | 2,087 | 0.1 | 0 | New |
| Organization for Democratic Action | 1,351 | 0.0 | 0 | New |
| Invalid/blank votes | 67,702 | - | - | - |
| Total | 3,119,832 | 100 | 120 | 0 |
| Source: Nohlen et al | ||||
1 Three MKs left the Labor Party to establish One Nation.
2 Two MKs from the Labor Party and four from Likud left to form the Centre Party. Eliezer Sandberg later broke away from the Centre Party and formed HaTzeirim before joining Shinui.
3 Three MKs left Likud to establish Herut – The National Movement. Three members of Gesher and two members of Tzomet also left alliance.
4 Two MKs left the National Religious Party to establish Tkuma.
5 Avraham Poraz left Meretz to establish Shinui, whilst David Zucker also left the party.
6 Two MKs left Yisrael BaAliyah to establish Aliyah.
7 Balad left its alliance with Hadash.
8 United Torah Judaism split into Agudat Yisrael (three seats) and Degel HaTorah (one seat)
9 Emanuel Zisman left The Third Way.
10 Moshe Peled broke away from Tzomet and formed Mekhora before joining Moledet.
Labour retained its position as the largest party, but Likud's Binyamin Netanyahu won the election for Prime Minister, meaning he had the power to form the 27th government, which he did on 18 June, 1996.
Alongside his Likud-Gesher-Tzomet alliance, Netanyahu formed a coalition with Shas, the National Religious Party, Yisrael BaAliyah, United Torah Judaism and The Third Way, with 18 ministers.
Gesher broke away from the alliance with Likud and left the government coalition in January 1998.
Netanyahu faced several issues; the left argued the peace process was advancing too slowly, but signing the Hebron Agreement and the Wye River Memorandum also caused him problems with the right-wing.
Eventually problems passing the state budget for 1999 led to early elections for both the Knesset and Prime Minister being called, which were held in May 1999.
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