Country: Israel Official Name: State of Israel Election Type: Parliamentary Date: March 28, 2006 Source for election date

At stake in this election:

• 120 seats in the Knesset

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Moshe KATZAV
• Head of Government: Prime Minister (Acting) Ehud OLMERT **
• Assembly: Israel has a unicameral Knesset with 120 seats.

** Ehud OLMERT became Acting Prime Minister after Prime Minister Ariel SHARON suffered a serious stroke in January 2006.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by parliament to serve a 7-year term.
• The Prime Minister (Acting) is designated by the president to serve a 4-year term.
• In the Knesset 120 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: Kadima*
  Leader: Ehud OLMERT
  Seats won in this election: 29
  Seats won in last election: N/A
• Party: Labor-Meimad
  Leader: Amir PERETZ
  Seats won in this election: 19
  Seats won in last election: 19
• Party: Shas
  Leader: Eliyahu YISHAI
  Seats won in this election: 12
  Seats won in last election: 11
• Party: Likud
  Leader: Benjamin NETANYAHU
  Seats won in this election: 12
  Seats won in last election: 38
• Party: Israel Our Home / Yisrael Beitenu
  Leader: Avigdor LIEBERMAN
  Seats won in this election: 11
  Seats won in last election: 4
• Party: National Union-National Religious Party / Ichud Leumi - Mafdal******
  Leader: Benyamin ELON
  Seats won in this election: 9
  Seats won in last election: 9
• Party: Pensioners of Israel to the Knesset / Gimla'ey Yisrael LaKneset (GIL)*******
  Leader: Eitan Pentman REPHAEL
  Seats won in this election: 7
  Seats won in last election: N/A
• Party: Torah and Shabbat Judaism
  Leader: Yakov LITZMAN
  Seats won in this election: 6
  Seats won in last election: 5
• Party: Meretz - Democratic Israel
  Leader: Yossi BEILIN
  Seats won in this election: 5
  Seats won in last election: 6
• Party: United Arab List - Arab Renewal
  Leader: Ibrahim TZARTZUR
  Seats won in this election: 4
  Seats won in last election: 2
• Party: Democratic Front for Peace and Equality / Hadash
  Leader: Mohammad BARAKE
  Seats won in this election: 3
  Seats won in last election: 3
• Party: National Democratic Assembly
  Leader: Azmi BISHARA
  Seats won in this election: 3
  Seats won in last election: 3
• Party: Others
  Leader: N/A
  Seats won in this election: 0
  Seats won in last election: N/A

* Kadima Party was formed in November 2005.
****** In the last election, the National Union obtained 4 seats, while the National Religious Party won 5.
******* The GIL party was formed following the last election.

Last Parliamentary election:

• The last parliamentary election was held on January 28, 2003.

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 6,276,883 (July 2005 This figure includes about 187,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, about 20,000 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, more than 5,000 in the Gaza Strip, and fewer than 177,000 in East Jerusalem )
• Registered Voters: 5,014,622 (March 2006 )

Last Updated on 07/26/2010

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