Likud backs PM in vote to reform party primary system
Central Committee members adopt proposal that lets all party members pick first 16 slots on Knesset slate
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Members of the powerful Central Likud Committee voted in favor Sunday night of a proposal backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reform the primary voting system by giving all party members the right to choose who will fill the first 16 slots of the party’s Knesset list in future elections. The committee members thus reduced their own authority, giving themselves control only of appointments lower down on the list.
Voter turnout for the committee’s 3,770 members was 69%, with 2,689 making their way to ballot boxes across the country on Sunday.
Of those who voted, 1,557 (57.9%) were in favor of the proposal put forth by MK David Bitan, and backed by the prime minister, while 1,040 voted for a second proposal, opposed by Netanyahu, which would have given the central committee control of the whole Knesset slate, effectively disenfranchising Likud’s 100,000-plus members.
The exercise was a first post-election test for Netanyahu, who led the party to victory in March, and who in past years has lost power within the party to the Likud Central Committee.
Netanyahu had worried that too much control of the list by the central committee could corrupt the process.
On Sunday morning, the prime minister exhorted members to get out and vote so that opponents of his preferred proposal, whom he referred to as the minority, would not have an opportunity to “harm our registered members and give our competitors a chance to tarnish our reputation.”
He said that voting for the proposal he backed would keep the Likud as the ruling party “for many years to come.”
Haaretz reported on Sunday that in Netanyahu’s efforts to win the support of Likud Central Committee members in recent weeks, he had obtained 26 out of the 30 signatures of Likud Knesset members on a letter supporting his position. Ministers Yisrael Katz and Silvan Shalom refused to sign it.
“Most of you support my compromise proposal,” Netanyahu said in a video clip that he circulated among the Central Committee members over the weekend. “It is good for the registered members, for the central committee and Likud.”
The Times of Israel Community.