Today (Wednesday), the Interior Ministry published a legal memorandum proposing the deferral of elections for local governments and regional councils, set to take place on October 31. Per the proposal, the elections will be deferred for three months, and take place on January 31, 2024.
"Given the state of war the State of Israel is in, and the difficulties in conducting an election during the aforementioned period, it is proposed to put off the date of the elections by some three months," the proposal stated. "It is also proposed to clarify and state that actions that have already been carried out legally and on the date before the original date will continue to remain valid."
Already in the beginning of the week, it was reported that the Interior Ministry was considering deferring the local government elections by a few weeks due to the war in the south and the security situation. The ministry stated that a decision had not been made, as preparations to hold the elections on the original date continued.
However, it was reported that backups prepared in advance in case of a wartime scenario were activated. The ministry noted that "situational assessments are taking place all the time and decisions are being made in accordance with what needs to be done, while taking care to heed the instructions of Rear Command. For example, all instructional activities planned for tomorrow were cancelled. Discussions on the subject of the elections set for various governments, such as completing the process of approving lists, will take place on Zoom."
