Israelis to go to the polls early next year
Benjamin Netanyahu calls election 8 months early, and says the move is in the 'national interest' as economy sags; vote expected early next year
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called an early general election, saying it should be held "as quickly as possible" in a bid to avoid damaging the country's flagging economy.
"My duty as prime minister is to put the national interest before everything, and so I've decided that for the good of Israel we must go to an election now as fast as possible," he told a press conference on Tuesday, broadcast live on Israel's main television and radio stations.
"For the state of Israel, it is preferable to have a short election period of three months than a long election campaign which would last a whole year, and hurt Israel's economy," Netanyahu said.
Elections for Israel's 19th parliament had been due to take place in October 2013 but the Israeli leader moved to bring forward the date after failing to garner the support of coalition partners for an unpopular austerity budget that must be passed by the end of this year.
Although he did not set a date for the election, Israeli press reports suggested it would be in late January or mid-February. By law, elections must take place on a Tuesday.
Netanyahu has been trying to push through an austerity budget prepared by Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz that commentators say has virtually no chance of being adopted by the end of 2012.