Municipal elections pushed off to January 30, 2024, Knesset decides

Municipal elections will be pushed back to January 30, 2024, instead of held on October 31 as planned, after the Knesset finalized wartime legislation to give voters and municipalities a three-month campaign pause.

The bill passed into law with 17 votes in its third and final reading, with zero against.

The government can order a further election date delay to February 27, 2024, on the recommendation of the Knesset’s Interior Committee and pending Knesset approval.

Explanatory notes accompanying the law quote a High Court of Justice ruling, which says: “The existence of a state of emergency, in which a significant part of the nation is drafted into the army and the other part of the home front is threatened by enemy attacks, is liable to make it difficult to hold a democratic election process that will achieve its main goals.”