Israel Paying Economic Price for 4th Election in 2 Years Joshua Shuman
Economic uncertainty and instability are real cost of Israel’s elections
Elections cost money. And Israel’s upcoming election, the fourth in two years, will cost much more than previous ones.
The financial burden of the election on state coffers is compounded by the fact that the government has not passed national budgets for 2020 and 2021.
The cost of holding Israel’s upcoming election, scheduled for March 23, 2021, is estimated at close to 500 million NIS ($155.4 million). This is at least 20% higher than the last elections in March 2020 and higher by as much as 40% than the first election in the last two years that took place in April 2019.
Uri Cohen 12/23/2020
Health officials spar with lawmakers as nation braces for trying times due to the pandemic and the fourth round of national elections in two years
Israel’s parliament on Tuesday dispersed yet again, plunging the beleaguered nation into its fourth election cycle in less than two years, after the government failed to pass a national budget.
While Israelis may feel stuck in an endless Groundhog Day-like loop, this time around Election Day is expected to feel entirely different, as citizens head to the polls on March 23 under the strains and fears of the coronavirus pandemic.
Israel’s three consecutive election cycles in 2019 and 2020 – brought on by parliament’s repeated failure to form a viable government – while exhausting and costly, occurred in the days before COVID-19 swept the globe.