Municipal elections delayed again due to war, to be held February 27
Cabinet agrees to postpone ballot for the sake of candidates on reserve duty, after army says it won’t be able to release nearly 700 on active duty in time for vote
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
The cabinet on Sunday voted unanimously to postpone nationwide municipal elections scheduled for the end of January until February 27, 2024, as the ongoing Israel-Hamas war continues to present challenges in holding the ballot.
The municipal elections, originally scheduled for October 31, were delayed to January 30 in light of the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, which erupted on October 7 when some 3,000 Hamas terrorists burst through the border, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping over 240, mostly civilians.
“We usually do not hold elections in wartime but these elections were set in advance,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during the cabinet meeting.
After noting that elections could not be indefinitely postponed, the premier said it came down to two options: end of January as planned, or end of February.
“My recommendation is clear: to do this at the end of February, in order to enable as many reservists as possible to participate in the elections. This is an elementary and important right,” the prime minister said.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, chair of the far-right Religious Zionism party, welcomed the decision in a statement posted on X Sunday.
“When our soldiers are on the front line they can’t participate in the vote and the last thing Israeli citizens need are election debates,” he wrote. He was speaking, he said, on behalf of the “tens of thousands of soldiers who are not willing to give up the right to vote and to run for office.”
Earlier this month, Religious Zionism called for the postponement and was backed by other coalition partners.
The request came as the Israel Hayom newspaper reported last week that the military and Interior Ministry would encounter logistical issues in holding the vote — a claim denied by both bodies.
After delaying a decision on the matter last week, Netanyahu’s office announced that the cabinet had asked the Israel Defense Forces to provide it with information on the 2,189 candidates for local office currently performing reserve duty.
On Friday, the army informed the cabinet that 688 reservists who are candidates in the January elections would “most likely” not be able to be released from duty to conduct their campaign. The reservists whose roles in the army were deemed crucial represented 144 municipalities, the IDF noted.
