General elections were held in Israel on 29 May 1996. For the first time the Prime Minister was elected on a separate ballot from the remaining members of the Knesset. The 1996 elections resulted in a surprise victory for Netanyahu by a margin of 29,457 votes, less than 1% of the total number of votes cast, and much smaller than the number of spoiled votes. This came after the initial exit polls had predicted a Peres win, spawning the phrase "went to sleep with Peres, woke up with Netanyahu." This election was Peres's fourth and last election defeat.