After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main rival failed to parlay the previous two ballots into a new coalition government, Israel will hold an election next year in March 2, parliament decided on Thursday.
By a vote of 94 in favour to none opposed, lawmakers approved a motion dissolving parliament and setting the new election date.
It came hours after a final deadline passed to form a government following the last election in September.
In that ballot, and in the one prior in April, Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party deadlocked with ex-general Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White, neither managed to muster enough support in the 120-seat Knesset for a stable coalition.
However, the next election will be held in the shadow of a corruption indictment handed down against Netanyahu last month.
As PM Netanyahu is under no legal obligation to resign as a result of the indictment, and while in office he can ask the legislature to grant him immunity from prosecution.
Earlier in the month, Netanyahu was indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate corruption cases.
On November 22, PM Netanyahu was formally charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, making him the first Israeli premier to be indicted while in office and sending Israel’s already stalemated political system into further disarray.
In all three cases, Netanyahu has been accused of fraud and abuse of trust, and in addition in Case 4,000, he is alleged to have committed bribery, the most serious accusation that puts his position in question.
In October, the prime minister’s legal team spent four marathon days in front of prosecutors arguing that the charges should be reduced or dismissed, an effort that apparently had little effect.
Netanyahu was first elected as chairman of the Likud in 1993, serving in the opposition until 1996. He resigned from politics after being defeated in a general election in 1999, returning to lead the party in 2005. Since then he has consolidated his position in Likud, dividing and weakening his opponents and facing very few challenges over the years.