חוק המפלגות (תיקון מס' 24), התשע"ח-2018Law on Political Parties (Amendment No. 24), 2018 · automatic translation · suggest a correction

Official summary of the law (Knesset)

The Parties Law (Amendment No. 24), 2018 was passed by the Knesset on 1 January 2018. The Law provides that a new arrangement will apply to primary elections for the position of Knesset member held during the period shortly before the general Knesset elections, in parties with at least 5,000 members, in which a majority of the party's members are entitled to vote. In such primary elections, candidates who are incumbent public officials serving in the government or the Knesset will be entitled to state funding of their primary election campaign expenses, but the ceiling on permitted expenses for candidates funded from the state treasury will be about one-third lower than the ceiling currently set in the Parties Law, 1992 (hereinafter – the Parties Law). These candidates will not be permitted to receive any donations, loans or guarantees to fund their primary election campaign expenses. By contrast, candidates in primary elections who are not public officials will be able to receive a loan from the state treasury to fund their primary election campaign expenses, in an amount up to the expense ceiling permitted in those elections. These candidates will be permitted to raise donations in accordance with the arrangement currently in force under the Parties Law. Candidates who are not public officials will also be entitled to a grant funded by the state for their participation in primary elections. It is therefore provided that state funding will be granted to two groups of candidates among those who are not public officials: such candidates who begin serving in the Knesset within one year of the general Knesset election date will not be required to repay the loan they received from the state treasury, and it will become a grant. They will be required to return the donations they received, so that the connection between them and the donors who funded their primary election campaign is severed. The second group of candidates includes those who did not begin serving in the Knesset but received significant support in the primary elections. If such a candidate received at least 60% of the number of votes received by the candidate who entered the Knesset against whom they ran, and who received the lowest number of votes among the competing Knesset members, that candidate will be entitled to a proportional grant equal to the ratio between the number of votes they received and the number of votes received by the candidate who became a Knesset member as described. Accordingly, the Law provides that the penal provisions in the Parties Law will be expanded so that any violation of the provisions regulating the conduct of candidates in primary elections will be considered a criminal offense. Finally, the Law establishes a transitional provision under which incumbent public officials who currently hold an unused balance of donations will be required to return them to the donors within four months from the Law's effective date, unless they notify that they do not intend to use these funds to finance primary elections for the position of Knesset member.

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