Democrats members begin voting in primary for Knesset slate

The left-wing Democrats party opens its internal primaries to elect its Knesset slate with 112,376 registered party members eligible to vote in a “secure digital ballot” running from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m., rather than at physical polling stations.

Members will select between six and eight candidates from a field of 51 contenders for the party’s Knesset list. Party leader Yair Golan is expected to announce the results at 8 p.m.

For the first time, the party’s primary will be conducted entirely online, with voting available only via smartphones and computers and no physical polling stations.

Calling the vote “a celebration of Israeli democracy,” Golan urges members to cast their ballots and declares that “only a strong Democrats team in the Knesset and in the next government will save the country and restore to Israel the security, democracy and hope that it so desperately needs.”

Golan was elected leader of the party in a separate race in 2024 when it formed following the alliance of the Labor and Meretz parties, and is therefore not competing in today’s primaries.

The Democrats is one of only a handful of Israeli parties to use primaries in selecting its Knesset slate, alongside Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party. While Likud also elects most of its candidates through a primary, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will handpick eight places on the party’s list under rules approved this week. Meanwhile, the Arab-majority Hadash party selects its candidates through a vote of party delegates rather than the full membership.

In most other parties, including The Democrats’ allies in the Zionist opposition bloc, the order of candidates is determined by the party leadership or other internal party institutions.