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1 October 2010, Day 1,046 of the New World. This month’s Congressional election in Israel was, by all accounts, one of the most boring on record. There was early trepidation that several PTO candidates would win seats, as Israel is woefully inept at defending itself against such an attack, but this scenario was alleviated by the administrators. While the polls were open, about five candidates were banned and removed from the ballot, including Israeliicitizen. With more than twelve hours remaining in the election, the field was reduced to 42 contenders, and Israel is a nation allocated 40 seats.

Due to the creation of a new political party last month, this marks the first time since liberation that Israel has had five parties represented in the Knesset. This was also the first election since the annexation of the United Zionist Party by Israel First. Israel First was one seat shy of half the Knesset last month, and, as many expected, they achieved plurality the first month after the merger. This mostly came at the expense of the United Zionist Party, with United Israeli Independents maintaining about the same amount of representation. The other two parties, both having received their current names since the last election, fielded only one sincere candidate each, their party presidents, and one additional candidate each.

With so few candidates, obviously most of the citizens who put their names forth were elected. Each region is entitled to seven Congressmen (35 total), and the remaining five are elected as wildcards. However, this month saw only six candidates running in Tel Aviv Center District (after some contenders were banned). All six would have been elected even without a single vote, and the vacant spot is not replaced with a wildcard. The total number of people elected was just thirty-nine instead of forty. In an interesting anomaly, Greekboy remained on the ballot under his party, renamed girls rule, in Nazareth North District despite being banned before the election. He earned his second Congress medal, but will have no way to collect the treasure map reward. The final total number of eligible members of the Knesset is thirty-eight.

Two countries had even fewer members run for Congress. Norway only has one political party. That party can run a maximum of nine candidates in each of Norway's three regions, yielding 27 unopposed Congressmen. The remaining three seats would normally go to wildcards, but as there is no one from the "not qualified" pool to be selected for a wildcard seat, those seats go unfilled. North Korea, a nation entitled to 40 Congressmen, only had 39 declare this month.

This month saw several incumbents deciding not to return. Jewyoyo moved to India, Zaib Atsu deployed abroad, Haile Selassie I moved to Uruguay, Greekboy was banned, Illithian and Daniel Ender did not run, and Gherk, who attempted to steal money from the treasury by using a deceptive organization, moved to Canada and was unfortunately elected in Yukon. SamMed, yibgib, and Robbie Lizzini, who were not elected the month prior, won this month.




















Note that these results include Greekboy's election under girls rule despite being banned prior to the election.








The total number of votes cast fell sharply this month, and most regions shared some of the downward trend. Votes cast spiked in August, especially in Nazareth North District, but subsided below their July levels this month except in Haifa, which only had six candidates run in July, and Nazareth, which broke even with the number of votes in July.