April 2019 Israeli legislative election

Voting in the election day in a polling station in HaBiluyim Primary School in Ramat Gan.

Two party lists can sign an agreement that allows them to compete for leftover seats as though they are running together on the same list. The Bader–Ofer method disproportionately favors larger lists, meaning that such an alliance is more likely to receive leftover seats than both of its comprising lists would be individually. If the alliance receives leftover seats, the Bader–Ofer calculation is then applied privately, to determine how the seats are divided among the two allied lists.[13] The following agreements were signed by parties prior to the election:

• Union of Right-Wing Parties and Likud[14]
• New Right and Yisrael Beiteinu[15]
• Meretz and Labor[16]
• United Torah Judaism and Shas[17]
• Hadash–Ta'al and Balad-Ra'am[18]

• The Zehut Party, under the leadership of Moshe Feiglin, was founded in 2015 for the purpose of running in the Knesset elections as a right-wing libertarian Zionist party.[19][20] It held Israel's first open primaries on 29 January 2019.[21]
• Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked, and Shuli Mualem[22] announced on 29 December 2018 that they would leave the Jewish Home party and form a new religious-secular party called the New Right.[23]
• Engineer and Nazareth resident Salman Abu Ahmad announced on 2 January that he launched a new Israeli Arab party named New Horizon — An Arab Centrist Party, which would participate in the elections.[24] However, the party did not run.
• Former IDF brigadier general Gal Hirsch announced on 8 January that he launched a new party named Shield of Israel.[25]
• Motti Ashkenazi and Gad Haran will lead the Social Justice Party.[26]
• Amos Danieli will run as part of the For Our Sake party.[27]
• Semyon Grafman will run as part of the Social Safety party, being known for attempting to register his party using a ballot symbol which is pronounced similar to the English word fuck.[28]
• Tkuma and The Jewish Home ran on a joint list named the Union of Right-Wing Parties alongside Otzma Yehudit.[29][30]
• Former Likud MK Oren Hazan headed the Tzomet party.[31]
• Orly Levy ran in the election with a political party named Gesher. She announced that she and her party would run independently after a failed joint-list agreement with Benny Gantz and his Resilience party.[32][33]
• Benny Gantz's Israel Resilience Party ("Hosen LeYisrael" in Hebrew) ran on a united list named Blue & White, with Moshe Ya'alon's Telem, Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid, and former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi.[34][35]

• Tzipi Livni announced on 18 February 2019 that her Hatnua party would not contest the election.[36]
• Left-wing activist Eldad Yaniv announced on 30 December 2018 that he would re-form his 2013 party named "Eretz Hadasha", which would have run in the upcoming election,[37] though Yaniv dropped out of the race following the revealing of the Gantz/Lapid joint list on 20 February 2019.[38]
• The Green Leaf party announced on 20 February 2019 that it would not participate in the election.[39]
• Haredi Women's College founder Adina Bar-Shalom had expressed interest in participating in the elections with her newly formed, but unregistered, party Ahi Yisraeli,[40][41] though the party announced its withdrawal on 26 February 2019.[42]
• Yom-Tov Samia announced the withdrawal of B'Yahad on 4 March 2019.[43]
• Eli Yishai announced the withdrawal of Yachad on 27 March 2019.[44]

Benny Gantz's Israel Resilience Party and Moshe Ya'alon's Telem unveiled its party slate on 19 February 2019.[45] Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party unveiled its party slate on 18 February 2019.[46] On 21 February 2019, the three parties agreed to run on a united list named Blue and White.[47]

The Jewish Home held its leadership primaries on 27 April 2017; Naftali Bennett won with 80.3% of the vote, Yonatan Branski received 12.2%, and Yitzhak Zagha received 7.47%.[48] In the aftermath of the formation of the New Right, and Bennett's leaving, the Jewish Home cancelled its primaries.[49] Rafi Peretz was elected leader of the Jewish Home on 4 February.[50]

The Tkuma party held its leadership primaries on 14 January 2019; Bezalel Smotrich defeated Uri Ariel.[51]

On 14 February 2019, Jewish Home agreed to run on a joint list with the Tkuma party. Jewish Home leader Rafi Peretz headed the joint list, with Tkuma chair Bezalel Smotrich as the number two.[29] On 20 February 2019, they agreed to include Otzma Yehudit in their list, titled the Union of Right-Wing Parties.[30][52] The inclusion of Otzma Yehudit prompted strong criticism.[53][54][55]

The Labor Party held its leadership primaries on 10 July 2017; Avi Gabbay defeated Amir Peretz in the run-off, with Isaac Herzog being defeated during the first round of voting.[56] The party held primaries on 11 February 2019 to choose members for its slate.[57]

The Likud leadership primary election was originally scheduled for 23 February 2016 following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal,[58] and later cancelled by a party court on the basis that the Likud constitution did not require a vote when there was only one candidate.[59][60] Likud held the primary for the rest of its list on 5 February 2019, which resulted in several of Netanyahu's rivals winning senior spots.[61][62] Voting irregularities surfaced in the primary results. In some cases, specific candidates received more votes in some locales than the total number of ballots cast in those locales. The Likud party investigated the matter.[63] In the final results, Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein came in first place, followed by Yisrael Katz, Gilad Erdan, Gideon Sa'ar, and Miri Regev.[64]

On 28 February 2019, the Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, announced his intent to indict Prime Minister Netanyahu on three charges which include bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. These include trading legislation for favorable press coverage.[65]

Meretz held its leadership primaries on 22 March 2018; Tamar Zandberg won with 71% of the vote, Avi Buskila received 29%.[66] Meretz held its primary on 14 February 2019.[67]

Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu released its party slate on 19 February 2019.[68]

The Zehut party held Israel's first open primaries on 29 January 2019, in which all Israeli voters (including those living abroad) were able to vote via a secure online website. About 12,000 people voted in these primaries, which determined the order of the candidates who won in the party's internal primaries in September 2017.[69][70]

Legend

• Right-of-centre parties: all current government parties—Likud, Kulanu,[fn 1] Shas, United Torah Judaism (UTJ), Union of Right-Wing Parties (URWP), and New Right—as well as Yisrael Beiteinu and Zehut.[fn 2]
• Centre and left-of-centre parties: Labor, Blue & White,[fn 3] Ra'am-Balad, Hadash-Ta'al, Meretz, and Gesher.[fn 4]

Note: Political blocs do not necessarily determine the exact make-up of post-election coalitions.