On October 27, Israel will hold elections for the 26th Knesset. For the first time in seven years, the election will take place on schedule, after the Knesset completed a full four-year term following the November 2022 election. The total cost of the elections to the economy is now estimated at about 4 billion shekels ($1.3 billion).
In at least one respect, the longevity of the current Knesset has helped: Israel has not had to repeat the enormous expense of holding elections every year or even every few months. The country went through four elections in less than two years — in April 2019, September 2019, March 2020, just as the coronavirus crisis began, and March 2021. Including the upcoming vote, Israel will have held seven elections in 10 years since 2015.
The cost of elections is effectively divided between the damage to the economy — mainly the payment of especially high wages, sometimes up to 200%, at factories and businesses, along with the shutdown of part of the country’s production and economic activity for an entire day — and the direct cost of holding and administering the election through the Central Elections Committee, as well as campaign financing for political par...