Likud court overturns Netanyahu bid to cancel party primaries in wartime

Likud’s internal court overturns Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bid to cancel the upcoming party primary if it cannot be held because of a possible “wartime situation,” and to select its Knesset slate through an appointed committee controlled by the premier.

In its ruling, the court says there is “no room to open even the slightest door to canceling the primary,” which is currently set for August 17, arguing that Likud “is not a one-man party and will lose its character if it becomes one.”

The judges rule that if security conditions make it impossible to hold the vote as scheduled, the preferred solution is to postpone it or use electronic voting — though this is not currently permitted under the party’s constitution. Either, according to the decision, would be “a thousand times preferable, in our view, to a wholesale violation of the party constitution by not holding a vote at all.”

The court also notes that the party’s constitution already allows primaries to be postponed during an emergency and says it will rule again should unforeseen circumstances arise.

The decision overturns a measure approved by the Likud Constitution Committee last week allowing Netanyahu to appoint a five-member committee of Likud mayors to determine the party’s Knesset slate if a wartime emergency prevented the primary from being held, effectively capitulating to the premier’s monthslong push for unprecedented control over the party’s candidate list.

At the time, Netanyahu said that he supported holding a primary, but that “there is a possibility that we could find ourselves in an exceptional security situation” that would make campaigning and voting impossible.

The committee also agreed to Netanyahu’s demand to grant him eight reserved slots on the Knesset list, seven of them within the first 30 places, to install handpicked candidates.

Netanyahu had previously threatened to cancel the primary if his demand for more reserved seats was not met.