Former Labor Premier Shimon Peres said the direct election law achieved the opposite of what it set out to do.

"The government is completely paralyzed. The prime minister is permitted to fire a minister but not to make a decision. Some ministers have a veto right and the Cabinet cannot reach a decision on crucial issues."

Peres said the new system, first used in the 1996 Israeli elections in which he lost to Netanyahu, has "deprived the large parties of their uniting ideology, and gave the small ones the power of extortion."