If the Central Elections Committee finishes counting all the votes by Wednesday afternoon, the president may ask panel chairman Justice Hanan Melcer to allow him to summon party representatives on Sunday. He acted in a similar manner after the April election earlier this year as well as in the 2015 ballot. Such consultations usually last two days, and when they conclude the president has to decide whether to give the mandate to form a government to a Knesset member who has agreed to take up the task.