Labor, Meretz sign surplus vote-sharing agreement

The Labor and Meret party announce that they have signed a surplus vote-sharing agreement ahead of the November Knesset elections.

A joint statement quotes Labor’s Ram Shefa and Meretz’s Michal Rozin as saying the upcoming elections are critical to prevent the far-right from entering government.

Vote-sharing agreements, which are widely used in Israeli elections, allow parties to ensure that extra votes they win that don’t add up to a Knesset seat do not go to waste. Instead, a party transfers those votes to another party through a special agreement.

Under the law, the combined leftover votes go to the party closest to winning another seat — and are often sufficient to add that seat to its tally, making the votes potentially decisive in a close race.

Such deals only count if both parties pass the electoral threshold of 3.25 percent of the votes.