By David Israel • September 8, 2026
Jerusalem, 8 September, 2026 (TPS-IL) — Political parties face a key deadline Tuesday night as they submit their candidate lists for Israel’s upcoming elections.
About 6.8 million Israelis are eligible to vote in the October 27 election. Parties must receive at least 3.25% of valid votes to win seats in the Knesset. Votes cast for parties that fall below the threshold do not count toward the distribution of seats. Parties have until 10:00 PM. to file their lists with the Central Elections Committee.
The deadline has intensified Pressure on smaller parties to merge or form technical alliances, particularly among parties competing for votes in the same ideological camp.
Several parties finalized their lists after walking away from potential alliances. Among them are Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar! and Ofer Winter’s Amcha Yisrael. The two leaders, who served together in the military, rejected merger offers from other parties.
Eisenkot’s decision also closed the door on a joint run with former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid.
Former Culture Minister Chili Tropper, meanwhile, joined Eisenkot’s party with his centrist political list. Tropper parted ways with Yoaz Hendel and their centrist Zionist Home-The Reservists party. Hendel then announced a joint electoral run with economist Yaron Zelekha and his New Economist Party, which is focused on lowering the cost of living.
Bennett and Lapid, meanwhile, joined their slates, with Bennett taking the top spot on the newly named B’Yachad party.
Avigdor Liberman, leader of the right-wing opposition Israel Beiteinu party, rejected overtures from both Eisenkot’s and Bennett’s camps.
Yair Golan’s left-wing Democrats party submitted its official list on the first day of registration.
The deadline has also brought uncertainty within Likud, centered on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reserved slots on the party’s candidate list. Likud’s internal court ordered that the proposed list be distributed to party secretariat members by 9 p.m. Monday, allowing them to review the names before voting. The deadline passed without Netanyahu releasing the list.
According to Israeli media reports, Netanyahu has been searching for a prominent public figure capable of giving Likud a meaningful electoral boost. High-tech entrepreneur Oren Dobronsky was reportedly offered a spot among the top 10 candidates on the Likud list and responsibility for the artificial intelligence portfolio. Dobronsky ultimately declined to run, reportedly because doing so would have required him to give up his U.S. citizenship.
On the right, Bezalel Smotrich reached a joint-run agreement with Moshe Feiglin and his Zehut party, with Feiglin receiving a high position on the list.
Itamar Ben-Gvir resisted calls for his Otzma Yehudit party to join with Smotrich.
The Haredi United Torah Judaism party is also undergoing a leadership shake-up, with several veteran lawmakers from its two constituent factions dropped from the candidate list at the direction of their respective spiritual leaders. Rabbis Moshe Gafni and Uri Maklev of the party’s Degel HaTorah faction and Rabbi Israel Eichler of the Agudat Israel faction were viewed as casualties in UTJ’s battle against legislation to draft yeshiva students into military service.+
The United Arab List unveiled its slate on Monday night, with former police commander and lawmaker Yoav Segalovitz listed at number two. Party leader Mansour Abbas rejected calls to join forces with the Joint List, which is made up of the Hadash, Ta’al and Balad factions.
A separate October 16 deadline governs so-called “surplus-vote agreements,” technical pacts between two party lists that allow them to combine surplus votes when Knesset seats are allocated. Such agreements can increase the chances of an ideologically aligned party winning an additional seat.
Recent public opinion polls show Eisenkot’s Yashar! party leading Netanyahu’s Likud, but the parties aligned with Eisenkot would still fall short of the 61 seats needed for a Knesset majority.
