Israeli elections under FPTP

[danny]

A good basis (but it's JUST a basis) for calculating FPTP is to square the number then turn it into seats.

While this might work well between the big parties (Likud, Labour, and lately Kadima), it would not amongst the other parties as FPTP favours parties with a concentrated majority in certain areas that are large enough for a district, and this would cause some parties votes to hold up better others. For instance, Meretz would be wiped out while UTJ would be fine.

[danny]

United Religious Front (no clear leader - I think Moshe Unna was 1st on list) 10

Actually Yehuda Leib Maimon was number 1 on the list, although with the way the party was structured, it really had 4 different leaders

[danny]

United Religious Front (no clear leader - I think Moshe Unna was 1st on list) 10

Actually Yehuda Leib Maimon was number 1 on the list, although with the way the party was structured, it really had 4 different leaders

I understand it was really four different parties merging in one list, but Wikipedia is rather unhelpful in this regard. I'll put Maimon as the leader, if only because someone has to be leader. Thank you very much for your help!...and this'll probably be it for me today, I'll pick up again later.

Yes, the Hebrew wikipedia was more helpful in this regard.

[danny]

Excellent Vosem. Maybe when this is all done Danny could draw up a constituency map?

Maybe, but only once I'm done with the real world maps which I plan on getting back to once I'm finished with some college tests.

And yeah, great work Vosem.

[danny]

In 2001, Barak's 'grand alliance' collapsed, and he was replaced by the leader of Likud, Ariel Sharon. Sharon formed a 'national unity government' with Barak's Labor-Meimad, Shas, the Centre Party, the National Religious Party, United Torah Judaism, Yisrael BaAliyah, and the National Union -- this gigantic creation managed to survive to 2003, and had an astounding total of 102 members; indeed, Meretz leader Yossi Sarid became Leader of the Opposition.

So, before the next election, the parties were organized like this:
Labor-Meimad (Ehud Barak) 47
Likud (Ariel Sharon) 27
Shas (Aryeh Deri) 20
Meretz (Yossi Sarid) 7
Shinui (Tommy Lapid) 3
Gesher (David Levy) 3
National Religious Party (Yitzhak Levy) 2
United Torah Judaism (Meir Porush) 2
Democratic Choice (Roman Bronfman) 2
National Union (Rehavam Ze'evi) 2
Centre Party (Yitzhak Mordechai) 1
Yisrael BaAliyah (Natan Sharansky) 1
United Arab List (Abdulmalik Dehamshe) 1
Hadash (Mohammad Barakeh) 1
Arab National Party (Muhamad Kanan) 1

Barak was replaced in a prime-minister only election in which he run and lost, after which he resigned and was replaced by Binyamin Ben Eliezer, who, in turn lost a year later in internal primaries to Amram Mitzna. Amram Mitzna lasted even less time at half a year, but that would be under the next update.