After war delay, Yesh Atid reschedules first-ever leadership primary for March

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party will hold its first-ever primary election for the party leadership in March, after it was postponed due to the war against Hamas, it was announced Tuesday.

The party, founded by Lapid in 2012, has never held a primary election. Days before the October 7 Hamas onslaught, it scheduled a leadership contest for December, but later pushed it off amid the ensuing war against the terror group.

Members of the party’s committee have been informed of the new timing, Hebrew media reported.

Yesh Atid MK Ram Ben Barak is expected to run against Lapid.

The party announced a leadership primary for 2022, but canceled when Lapid ended up being the only candidate running.

Members were notified that any individual who satisfies the party’s criteria for chairperson may submit their candidacy for the position until the end of February.

The criteria include: legal eligibility to serve as prime minister; being a party member continuously for at least the last three years; and not having been previously charged with a crime of moral turpitude.

The March conference will mark Yesh Atid’s second such event.

The party’s first conference took place in January 2022, but did not feature the planned leadership vote, after Lapid had no challengers for the party’s helm.

Since its founding, the party has garnered criticism for its lack of elections for both the party leadership and its Knesset slate, as Lapid has always chosen the list himself.

According to the party’s original bylaws, drafted ahead of the 19th Knesset elections in 2013, a vote for Yesh Atid chairperson should have been held before the 21st Knesset election, which took place in April 2019. When the time came, however, the bylaws were amended so that Lapid could pursue a political alliance with ex-IDF chiefs Moshe Ya’alon and Benny Gantz.

Lapid was later criticized for the move by then-Yesh Atid lawmaker Ofer Shelah, a longtime confidant of Lapid’s, who said that “without a profound change, Yesh Atid can’t continue to be an alternative [to Likud].”

After his demand for an internal leadership vote was rebuffed by Lapid, Shelah left Yesh Atid to form his own party.

While conceding his party’s need to democratize, Lapid has appeared leery of party primaries in the past, claiming unfettered internal elections were the undoing of the Labor and Kadima parties, two erstwhile political powerhouses.

Founded in 2012, Yesh Atid considers itself to be a centrist, liberal and Zionist party.

Sam Sokol contributed to this report.