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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israel's Netanyahu Backs Bill for Direct Election for PM |
| 2021-04-20 |
| [ENGLISH.AAWSAT] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for a new law to allow the direct election of the nation's leader as a way to break the country's two-year political deadlock. The proposal could guarantee Netanyahu another term as prime minister after he and his religious and nationalist allies failed to win a clear majority in March 23 elections. It also would allow him to stay in power while facing a lengthy corruption trial. Netanyahu has a May 4 deadline to build a governing coalition. After that, a group of small parties that oppose him hope to be able to cobble together an alternative government. "There is a solution to the political stalemate, and the vast majority of the public supports it," Netanyahu told politicians from his Likud party. He said a direct vote for prime minister would avoid "assembling absurd governments" and would allow Israeli citizens to choose a leader in "snap elections, without dissolving parliament." His opponents immediately decried the move, saying Israel does not need another election. Last month's election was Israel's fourth in just two years. Netanyahu was subsequently tasked by the country's president earlier this month to build a governing coalition. He has been courting a small Islamist faction that has emerged as kingmaker, and a pair of former allies who now head small rival parties. But so far he does not have a clear path to a new government. |
| Posted by:Fred |