Shas chairman Aryeh Deri is estimating that elections for the 26th Knesset will take place around mid-Elul, close to their originally scheduled date, despite the escalating political crisis surrounding the draft law and the status of yeshiva students.

During a conversation with rabbanim in Tiveriah, where Deri spent this past Shabbos, the Shas leader said he believes the elections will be held in the middle of the month of Elul, meaning they would be advanced by only about one month.

In the Knesset, coalition officials are reportedly inclined to set the elections at least a week before Rosh Hashanah, in order to allow the tens of thousands of people who travel to the kever of Rav Nachman in Uman to vote before departing.

The date currently being discussed within the coalition — and the one Deri himself is said to favor — is Tuesday, September 1, approximately a week and a half before Rosh Hashanah.

It was also noted that Deri returned to Yerushalayim together with the Rishon Letzion, Rav Yitzchak Yosef, who traveled back by helicopter in order to arrive in time at the Yazdim shul to deliver his weekly shiur.

During Shabbos, in remarks before dozens of leading halachic authorities, Deri said: “In this generation we have merited the leadership of the Rishon Letzion. May it be the will of Heaven that we continue to merit his leadership, along with the important Torah works that have been accepted throughout the Jewish world.”