A turnaround in Holon - Shai Keinan beat Moti Sasson/according to Section 27 A of the Copyright Law
October 31 was supposed to be a fateful day, for which candidates for the local authorities prepared for two years and invested in it soul, energy, days and nights, and a lot of money.
Over 200 authorities across the country waited for "after the holidays" to start campaigns before the last row.
Then came the October 7 disaster and made the democratic celebration irrelevant to a bleeding people.
Ofir Liebstein, head of the Shaar HaNegev council who ran again, and Tamar Kedem Siman Tov, who wanted to head the Eshkol council, were murdered.
The election date was postponed twice following the war, until it was set for February 27.
In 11 evacuated municipalities, it was decided to postpone their date to November 2024, more than a year from the original date, which left the candidates on hold, with large debts they took to finance their election campaign, and without the refunds they were supposed to receive from the state.
Some of them pay large sums for excess interest, in addition to the current expenses, which are involved in eviction from their home.
An election sign of the late Ofir Liebstein. His family and the family of candidate Tamar Kedem who were murdered received reimbursement from the state/Yinir Yagana
Most of the 11 municipalities where the elections were postponed are local councils, for which the law is different from that of the cities.
In the local council, the candidate does not have a faction, where members pay participation fees according to their position on the list, so the financial burden falls only on him, and he also does not have the option of running as part of a party, which can help with financing.
Thus they find themselves alone in the campaign, under an impossible burden of loans, which will be covered, if the elections do take place on the appointed date, only after the results are received.
Let's make a moment of order: the state grants funding to lists and candidates and requires them to report on their financial conduct, and limits the donations they can raise, their source and their expenses.
The participation of the state comes to create equality and give an opportunity to those who do not have the resources to participate in the democratic game, without those with wealth being able to take over the political discourse through money.
The candidates receive funding according to the achievements in the elections, which means that the amount of funding is determined retrospectively, using a formula.
So the contestants in the last election round should receive their funding in a short time.
The contestants in the Shevat who will stand for election only in November 2024, if all goes well of course, are forced to deal with a growing deficit.
In a discussion held in the Interior Committee of the Knesset, in the presence of Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, and discussing the determination of the date of the elections in the evacuated authorities, the issue came up.
The chairman of the committee, MK Yaakov Asher, promised to deal with it as soon as possible, but nothing happened.
"No one has contacted us to settle the matter," says Nira Shapec, who is running for the authority of the Shaar HaNegev Council. We had to contact the committee and the Minister of the Interior, four months have passed and still nothing has been done about it.
"I took a loan of hundreds of thousands of shekels to finance the The balloon loan campaign until December, the date when I was supposed to receive the money, and now I have to pay excess interest.
Together with other evacuated candidates, I appealed to the Minister of the Interior, Arbel, to the chairman of the Interior Committee, and unfortunately nothing happened."
Another candidate tells Walla that the families of Liebstein and the late Kedem Siman Tov have already received their participation from the state, according to a formula that gave them a 100% victory, while the candidates who live are from the nation. "If we weren't murdered, then don't we deserve it?" he says to Walla. "Our case is unusual.
There has never been a postponement of elections in such a large number of authorities, but the state set the participation key for the murdered candidates.
So please, give us the money back."
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"I took a loan of hundreds of thousands of shekels to finance the campaign with a balloon loan until December, the date when I was supposed to receive the money"/documentation on social networks according to Section 27 A of the Copyright Law
At the end of the discussion in the Interior Committee, Arbel referred to the financing of election expenses, "It seems that this requires examination, and I believe that it is right that the Interior and Environmental Protection Committee of the Knesset should hold a discussion on the subject and the question of providing an answer regarding it, including promoting a legislative amendment."
The Ministry of the Interior responded: "In light of the situation and out of a desire to help the candidates for the authorities whose elections have been postponed to November 2024, the Minister of the Interior directed the promotion of a memorandum of law that would allow payment to candidates and lists. In accordance with the Minister's instructions, the Ministry of the Interior is examining a number of compensation options for the candidates and the issue was even brought up for discussion with officials the various governments, and following that a legislative memorandum will be circulated and brought before the government and the Knesset."
More on the same topic:
local elections
Funding
evacuees
War of Iron Swords
Gaza war
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