Battle for Ballot Letters Begins as Israeli Parties Register for Knesset Elections
Israeli political parties have begun registering candidate lists for the 26th Knesset elections. New alliances, including Naftali Bennett's Biyachad and Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar!, are competing for ballot letters.
Registration of Party Lists Begins with Battle for Ballot Letters
On Sunday afternoon, representatives of Israeli political parties arrived at the Central Elections Committee to register their candidate lists and secure their official ballot letters. The election campaign is not only a battle over ideology, voters, and political blocs, but also a highly regulated administrative process that includes intense competition for available letters on the voting slips.
The official submission of party lists will open on Monday at 1:00 PM and run until 5:00 PM. On Tuesday, candidates will be able to submit their lists until 10:00 PM. The Chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Justice Noam Solberg, has the authority to extend the deadline until midnight, which represents the absolute cutoff.
Early Registrants and Unconventional Platforms
Among the earliest to arrive on Sunday was Eitan Shvili, nicknamed "Sharshar," who appeared wearing a crown. Identifying himself as a post-trauma survivor, he declared:
"The 'Sharshar, Flame, and Unity of the Nation' list will be the voice of hundreds of thousands of post-trauma survivors, fighting for life-saving medicine baskets and against the social boycotts of youth and citizens."
Shvili also clarified that in the government he intends to form, Benjamin Netanyahu would serve as foreign minister rather than prime minister.
Daniel Felber, representing the Pirate Party while wearing a pirate hat, criticized the traditional political system:
"Politics is still conducted as if the internet does not exist. Once every four years, Israeli citizens vote, and then 120 people make almost all the decisions for an entire country. We want to use technology to build a more open, transparent, and attentive democracy that listens every single day."
The Pirate Party has been attempting to enter the Knesset since 2013. Their highest result was 2,076 votes, while their lowest was 819 votes in the April 2019 elections.
The Political Alphabet of the 26th Knesset Elections
For Israeli parties, ballot letters are a crucial brand identity. Traditional symbols are legally reserved: "Mhl" (Machal) is identified with Likud, "Shs" (Shas) with Shas, "G" (Gimel) with United Torah Judaism, and "L" (Lamed) with Yisrael Beytenu.
Any faction represented in the outgoing Knesset holds priority rights over the letters it used in the previous elections. Other lists wishing to use these letters must obtain written consent from the faction's authorized representative. For the 26th Knesset elections, the rules have been expanded to allow combinations of up to three letters, rather than just one or two.
Yesh Atid, which is running this time as part of the Biyachad alliance led by Naftali Bennett, is expected to register under new letters. Currently, the available letters in the Hebrew alphabet include B, D, Z, I, N, Ts, K, K, P, and Ts.
New political entities face a challenging choice in selecting recognizable symbols. Among the new lists requiring registration are Yashar! led by Gadi Eisenkot, Ofer Winter's "Amcha Yisrael," and Bennett's Biyachad. Additionally, Otzma Yehudit and Noam, which ran under the Religious Zionism banner in the last elections, must secure their own independent ballot letters for this campaign.
