The Blue and White and Yisrael Beiteinu parties signed a surplus vote-sharing agreement on Monday, drawing censure from across the political spectrum.
Vote-sharing agreements allow for parties to use the extra votes that are not enough to receive a mandate. During the previous election in April, Yisrael Beiteinu had a sharing agreement with Naftali Bennet’s New Right Party that failed to pass the threshold to make it into the Knesset.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party bashed Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman for trying to topple the prime minister in the next election. However, a representative from Lieberman’s party stated that the sharing agreement is “a technical issue only.”
Lieberman responded on Twitter: “Netanyahu made an agreement of surrender with Hamas. I signed a vote sharing agreement with Blue and White, which I think is preferable.”