First Knesset

Israeli legislative election, 1949

25 January 1949 1951 →

Party Leader % Seats ± Mapai David Ben-Gurion 35.7% 46 Mapam Meir Ya'ari 14.7% 19 United Religious Front Yehuda Leib Maimon 12.2% 16 Herut Menachem Begin 11.5% 14 General Zionists Israel Rokach 5.2% 7 Progressive Party Pinchas Rosen 4.1% 5 Sephardim and Oriental Communities Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit 3.5% 4 Maki Shmuel Mikunis 3.5% 4 Democratic List of Nazareth Seif el-Din el-Zoubi 1.7% 2 Fighters' List Nathan Yellin-Mor 1.2% 1 WIZO Rachel Cohen-Kagan 1.2% 1 Yemenite Association Zecharia Glosca 1.0% 1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

Prime Minister before Prime Minister after David Ben-Gurion Mapai David Ben-Gurion Mapai

Elections for the Constituent Assembly were held in newly independent Israel on 25 January 1949. Voter turnout was 86.9%. Two days after its first meeting on 14 February 1949, legislators voted to change the name of the body to the Knesset (Hebrew: כנסת, translated as Assembly). It is known today as the First Knesset.

During the establishment of the state of Israel in May 1948, Israel's national institutions were established, which ruled the new state. These bodies were not elected bodies in the pure sense, and their members originated from the management of the Jewish agency and from the management of the Jewish National Council.

The Israeli Declaration of Independence stated that:

However, the elections were not held before the designated date due to the War of Independence, and were actually cancelled twice. The elections were eventually held on 25 January 1949.

These were the first elections held in Israel, and as such they demanded special preparations. On 5 November 1948 the Provisional State Council decided that the Constituent Assembly would consist of 120 members. On 8 November 1948 a population census was held which was later used in part for the preparations of the voters guide (the census was essential due to the rise of new immigrants and because of the Arab inhabitants of the British Mandate became refugees after the war). For the purpose of the census the entire country was under curfew for seven hours, from five in the afternoon and until midnight. Another issue was the issue of the Electoral System. Suggestions were made of different Electoral Systems, but eventually it was decided to maintain the relative electoral system which existed in the elections for the Assembly of Representatives of the Jewish community in British controlled Palestine, and that the Constituent Assembly elected would be the one to determine the future electoral system in Israel.

A thousand polling stations were prepared across the country. According to census, the number of eligible voters consisted of half a million people.