(Adnkronos) – There are still over 600,000 votes to be counted, those of voters who used the ‘double envelope’ system, which would correspond to 15 seats in the Knesset. These are mainly diplomats abroad, reservists, IDF soldiers, students, but also young people working in remote areas or polling station staff. The bloc of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could benefit from the ‘double envelope’ system, as Assaf Shapira, director of the Institute for Political Reforms at the Israel Democracy Institute, explained to N12. ”From past experience, double envelopes can change the distribution of mandates within parties, but from the bloc’s perspective, those who usually benefit are the religious right-wing parties,” he explained. “With a cautious assessment, we could see an increase in mandates in favor of the Netanyahu bloc,” the analyst stated.
“The current situation of the blocs is such that no one is close to forming a government,” Shapira added. “Although the double envelopes are worth a significant number of seats, in most cases the vote reflects that of the general electorate, with a slight rightward lean, and at the same time a weakening of the ultra-Orthodox and Arab parties,” he emphasized. In any case, he concluded, “it does not seem that the double envelopes will significantly change the overall picture of the blocs, because at the moment none of them are close to forming a government. The situation would be different if one of the two had had 60 seats even before the double envelopes.””
