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Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon cautiously backed an amendment to a quasi-constitutional law that would limit the president's powers in selecting a political leader to form a coalition after national elections, according to a television report released Sunday.
According to Hadashot News, the revision would ensure that only the leader of each elected political party would have the right to form a government and not any other figure on the party lists.
Under the legislation in force, after the elections, the president consults the leaders of all factions before asking the legislator considered to have the best chance to form a government to start negotiations with potential partners of the coalition. The person responsible for forming a government is usually the one who receives the most recommendations from other parties and is usually – but not necessarily – the leader of the party with the most seats.
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There was talk of the amendment after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month that a former top official of his party, the Likud, was trying to oust him after the next elections, with the Help from the president. Netanyahu has accused former Likud minister Gideon Sa'ar of attempting to orchestrate a "coup d'etat" that would see him rise to Likud leadership and the post of prime minister after the next elections. Sa'ar is a popular old man who is considered a potential challenger for Netanyahu.
Sa'ar asked Netanyahu to provide evidence or withdraw his application.
Netanyahu's accusation against Sa'ar came after the pro-Netanyahu newspaper, Israel Hayom, announced that the prime minister was delaying early elections, fearing that President Reuven Rivlin told Sa'ar to form a government. According to the report, Rivlin was considering the possibility of instructing the government to form a government other than Netanyahu – another Likud member if the party wins it vividly, or a legislator from another party if the margin victory is narrower – in light of ongoing corruption investigations against the prime minister.
President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at a commemorative ceremony celebrating the 23rd anniversary of the badbadination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, held at Mount Herzl Cemetery in Jerusalem on October 21, 2018. (Marc Israel Sellem / POOL)
As a result of these accusations, Kahlon recently told his faction chairman, MP Roy Folkman, that there is a "hole in the law" governing presidential powers, which gives the president the right to instruct any legislator to form a coalition.
Kahlon said that although the party supports a change in the law limiting the president to select a candidate only among party leaders, "we will not accept any other adjustment".
According to the report, given Kulanu's support for this idea, other parties in the coalition should follow, including the Jewish parties Home and Shas.
Such legislation would require a modification of the president's powers, as described in the country's basic laws, which, like a constitution, underlie the Israeli legal system and are more difficult to repeal than ordinary laws.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, followed by Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar (left), attend an award ceremony organized by the Trump Foundation in Netanyahu's Jerusalem office on December 25, 2012. ( Miriam Alster / Flash90)
Sa'ar was a rising star of Likud until he took a break from politics. Analysts regard him as one of the leading candidates for the position of prime minister in the post-Netanyahu era and enjoys great popularity among Likud activists.
The next election is scheduled for November 2019, but recent reports suggest that Netanyahu plans to take the country to the polls next March amid a series of corruption investigations that have involved him. .
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