Former minister Gideon Sa’ar, who has been in a public political feud with Prime Minister Netanyahu, is close third in Likud primary race; Erdan, Regev also in top five; MK Hazan, Minister Kara expected to lose seats.
With 75 percent of the votes counted in the ruling Likud Party’s primary elections on Wednesday morning, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz are vying for the first spot, while former minister Gideon Sa’ar is a close third place.
Photo: Motti Kimchi
Likud primaries
Photo: Motti Kimchi
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Edelstein, Katz go head-to-head for first spot on Likud list
Former minister Gideon Sa’ar, who has been in a public political feud with Prime Minister Netanyahu, is close third in Likud primary race; Erdan, Regev also in top five; MK Hazan, Minister Kara expected to lose seats.
Moran Azulay, Ittai Shickman|Published: 02.06.19 , 08:30
With 75 percent of the votes counted in the ruling Likud Party’s primary elections on Wednesday morning, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz are vying for the first spot, while former minister Gideon Sa’ar is a close third place.
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Likud Chairman Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been working to keep Sa’ar, who took a break from political life in September 2014, from the top spots on the list, and the two have been locking horns in a very public political feud in the days leading up to the party’s primaries. Now, Sa’ar seems set to make a big comeback.
According to the initial results, fourth on the party’s Knesset list is Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, followed by Culture Minister Miri Regev in the fifth spot.
Others in the party’s top 10 are Ministers Yariv Levin, Yoav Galant (who only recently left Minister Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu and joined Likud), and Gila Gamliel, along with former Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and MK Avi Dichter.
Ranked in the top 20 are Minister Yuval Steinitz, Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, Minister Ze’ev Elkin, Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotovely, and Minister Ofir Akunis. Minister Haim Katz is currently at 16 spot, while coalition chairman David Amsalem is currently ranked 17 and former coalition chairman David Bitan is at number 20. Amir Ohana (18) and Yoav Kisch (19) complete the top 20.
Low on the list are MKs Nava Boker, Oren Hazan, Nurit Koren and Communications Minister Ayoob Kara—all of whom will likely lose their Knesset seats.
After all the votes are tallied, the candidates on the national list will be ranked based on the number of votes they received, with some spots reserved in advance to the different districts, women, young candidates and special sectors.
Spot 1 on the list is reserved for Prime Minister Netanyahu, while spots 2-9, 11-18 and several others down the list will go to candidates on the national list, based on how high they ranked in the primaries.
Spots 10 and 20 will go to women on the national list, while spots 25, 31, 35, 46 and 50 will go to new female candidates on the national list. Spots 19, 21, 22, 26, 29, 33, 34, 36, 28, 29, 41 and 42 are reserved for the different districts. Spot 28 is reserved for a new immigrant, spot 30 for a non-Jewish candidate and spot 43 for a Haredi candidate.
Prime Minister Netanyahu can place a candidate of his choosing in the 21st spot, while he also asked to reserve the 28th and 36th spots—a request Likud voters are likely to grant him.
The Tel Aviv district (number 29) is seeing a close battle between Netanyahu’s former bureau chief David Sharan, who is suspected of corruption in the submarine affair (Case 3000) but nevertheless got backing from the prime minister, and Michal Shir, a close ally of Sa’ar.
The former chairman of the Israel Airports Authority workers’ union, Pinchas Idan, is leading the race by hundreds of votes for the Shfela district’s spot on the list (number 19).
Some 69,874 out of the Likud Party’s 120,000 registered voters cast their ballots on Tuesday in the party’s primary elections. The polls closed at 10pm, with voter turnout standing at 58 percent, which is three percent higher than the last primary elections.
As reported by Ynetnews