Israeli Election

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Sharon has just called for new elections. Pretty soon we'll see the biggest realignment in Israeli politics since Labour was united and Likud formed in the late '60's/early '70's with Sharon almost certain to leave Likud and form a new centrist party of some sort. I'm told that polls have a new Sharon-led centrist party even with Labour (which with a new leader and a return to it's Socialist roots is polling a lot better than the terrible 19 seats it won last election) with a Sharon-less Likud in third.

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How is the Knesset elected?

National list PR; % of votes = % of seats.

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Apparently Peres is about to announce that he's leaving Labour

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FPTP in multi-seat constituencies is close to being the worst system IMO; best example is the City ward in Bradford (contains the city centre, the university and a lot of low income housing populated mainly by Kashmiris. The council has been trying to get the area to move upmarket for years, but no one with money wants to move to Bradford. Which is kinda odd as the cost of living is very low and the city is still a major manufacturing centre) where (note; this was a low turnout election) Labour won the most votes but the Tories took 2 out of the 3 seats (with Labour getting the other one) as two of the Tory candidates were Kashmiris and big in the local Biradari's. Luckily MBC's only use this system after a rewarding; until the next one it'll be one seat from each ward up each election, which means that both "Tory" councillers are probably gonners.

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Kadima 29-32

A bit lower than I'd been thinking, but not by much (I'd decided that much of the hype 'bout them was overblown).

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Decent result; first increase for a long time.

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What really f***ed Likud (5th! 5th!) seems to have been Labour who polled very, very well in traditional Likud strongholds (and well enough to offset the loss of other voters to Kadima et al in traditional Labour strongholds). Some stuff from a Jerusalem Post article...

The returns from traditional Likud strongholds among the Negev development towns sealed the fate of Likud shoe-ins. In the impoverished southern towns of Yeruham and Ofakim, Likud received 6.8 and 10% respectively. These registered Likud towns, granted their previous patron party with 30 and 32% in the 2003 elections, returning Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to a second term in office.

Labor strategist Eitan Cabel proudly announced Wednesday morning that Labor had defeated Likud and claimed victory in the traditional Likud strongholds of Shlomi and Kiriyat Shmona.

In Tel Aviv and Haifa, Likud received only 8% of the votes. Labor Chairman Amir Peretz's hometown of Sderot gave Likud a mere 9.9%, as opposed to the 40% that the party received in the 2003 elections. On the other hand, Labor garnered 25% of the vote.

All was not rosy on the Labor front, however, as the left-center party saw its support chipping away in its traditional kibbutz strongholds. At Deganya A - a kibbutz on the southern shore of Lake Kinneret - Labor lost 5% compared to the 2003 elections, when the party carried the kibbutz with 59.1% of the vote. Kadima finished a distant second place with 16.3%, and Meretz third, with 10.2% of the vote in a sector generally viewed as friendly for the left-wing party.

The Green Leaf Party enjoyed a rare burst of support at the kibbutz, gaining 3% of votes. Had the party polled similarly nationwide, two Knesset seats would have been reserved for the advocates of legalization of marijuana.

While turnout was low nationwide, including in the development towns, exceptionally low turnout rates were recorded among settlers, who usually have a high rate of electoral mobilization. The NU-NRP bloc, recognized as representing the settlers, sank from 13 mandates to 9.

The lowest rates were found among the Beduin community in the south, where voter turnout hovered around 30%.

In contrast, the haredi communities of Modi'in Ilit and Beit El recorded over 90% turnout, far above the national average.

In Jerusalem, United Torah Judaism, the Ashkenazi haredi party, received 18.6% of the city's vote, and its Sephardi counterpart, Shas, took second place with 15.1%. Kadima polled close behind, with 14.5% of the Jerusalemite vote. The national religious front, NU-NRP, followed close behind with 13.5%, while Labor and Likud polled almost identically, gaining 10 and 10.4% respectively in the traditionally right-wing capital city.

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I'm wondering where the data are coming from... the official sites (Central Election Committee, Knesset) have no results data whatsoever. The Wiki doesn't state a source. (I was lokking for detailed regional results.)

Presumably it came from the count then. It would be nice if the whole lot was published...