Israeli Knesset lawmakers early on Tuesday voted 106-0 in a first reading to advance a coalition bill to dissolve parliament and pave the way for early elections.
The bill, which must clear two more readings to pass into law, was approved for by the Knesset House Committee on Monday morning and sent to the plenum for the first vote.
“We completed a full four years. In fact, we held on until the very end,” coalition whip Ofir Katz (Likud Party) said after the bill passed in first reading.
The dissolution bill passed a preliminary reading 110-0 on May 20, sending it to the House Committee for consideration, though coalition lawmakers initially showed little urgency to dissolve parliament.
Due to disagreements within the coalition, Katz advanced the bill without specifying an election date, saying the date would be added before its final two readings. The bill currently stipulates that elections will be held between Sept. 8 and Oct. 20.
As of Tuesday, the 25th Knesset had completed three years and seven months of its four-year term. In any case, national elections must be held by Oct. 27.
The dissolution bill was submitted after Rabbi Dov Lando, a leading figure in the Jewish state’s Lithuanian Haredi community, earlier this month ordered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition partners to “work toward dissolving the Knesset as soon as possible.”
Lando’s statement reportedly followed Netanyahu telling Haredi parties that there was currently no majority to pass legislation regulating the exemption of some yeshivah students from Israel Defense Forces service.
