LAURIE SAXE, PORTLAND, OREGON: My name is Laurie Saxe, from Portland, Oregon. And I would like to ask CNN to please explain the Israeli election process.</s>JERROLD KESSEL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Political scientists used to say that the problem with the Israeli electoral process was that it was too perfect. Because the Israelis had this absolute proportional-representation system, it meant that literally every vote counted. It didn't, however, work in practice, simply because there were too many parties and all governments had to be formed out of coalitions. So two elections ago, they changed the system and they had two -- a double-barreled election introduced; one the continuing election for the Parliament though the party system; and the other a direct election for the prime minister. The problem with this is, it didn't really worked either -- or it hasn't really worked -- because although there is a prime minister elected directly, he doesn't have absolute power. And there are more and more parties to be represented in Parliament. And it's become even more difficult for the prime minister to form a coalition government in Parliament. This time, we have an even newer system, with only an election for the prime minister. That's Ariel Sharon against Ehud Barak. The winner will, however, be facing the same problem of a very disparate Knesset at Parliament and trying to have to put together a coalition from those very, very different forces in Parliament.
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