Israeli legislative election, 1955

Elections for the third Knesset were held in Israel on 26 July, 1955. Voter turnout was 80.7%.

Results

¹ Originally a coalition of Mizrachi and Hapoel HaMizrachi that ran for the election under the name "National Religious Front" before changing their name to "Hapoel HaMizrachi-Mizrahi" and then the "National Religious Party" during the term of the Knesset.

² The Religious Torah Front changed their name to "Agudat Israel - Agudat Israel Workers", then reverted to their original title before the next elections.

Non-qualifiers

The following parties ran for election, but did not pass the electoral threshold of 1% (8,532 votes):

*Likud - Popular Economic Movement
*Elderly Workers Union
*New Immigrants List
*Sephardim and Oriental Communities
*Sons of Yemen and Religious Nonpartisan Movement
*The Arab List - The Centre
*Yemenite Association

The Third Knesset

Unlike the second Knesset, the third Knesset was one of the most stable in Israel's history. There were only two governments, and it was the only Knesset to date during which none of the parties split or merged. As with the first and second Knesset, the speaker was Yosef Sprinzak until his death on 28 January, 1959. He was replaced by Ahdut HaAvoda's Nahum Nir.

eventh government

The third Knesset started with David Ben-Gurion forming the seventh government of Israel (the previous two Knessets had six governments; two in the first and four in the second) on 3 November 1955. His Mapai party formed a coalition with the National Religious Front (which later changed its name to the National Religious Party), Mapam, the Progressive Party, Ahdut HaAvoda, and the three Israeli Arab parties, the Democratic List for Israeli Arabs, Progress and Work, Agriculture and Development. The government had 16 ministers. It collapsed when Ben-Gurion resigned on 31 December 1957 over the leaking of information from ministerial meetings.

Eighth government

Ben-Gurion formed the eighth government a week later on 7 January 1958 with the same coalition partners. The number of ministers remained the same. The eighth government collapsed when Ben-Gurion resigned again on 5 July 1959 after Labour Unity and Mapam had voted against the government on the issue of selling arms to West Germany and refused to leave the coalition. Elections for the fourth Knesset were called for 3 November 1959.

External links

* [http://www.knesset.gov.il/review/ReviewPage.aspx?kns=3&lng=3 Historical overview of the Third Knesset] Knesset website
* [http://www.knesset.gov.il/description/eng/eng_mimshal_res3.htm Election results] Knesset website