Meretz leader Galon seeks early re-election

Meretz leader Zehava Galon on Saturday announced she would be willing to forgo her remaining two years as party chairwoman if her left-wing party agreed to hold leadership primaries for the first time.

The move echoes similar maneuvers by other parties amid speculation that, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing two corruption investigations, new national elections could be in the offing.

Meretz, which has five seats in the current Knesset, has traditionally had a committee of senior members choose the leader and list of candidates.

In a Facebook post, Galon said scrapping the system where convention delegates choose the party Knesset list was the “right thing” to do for Meretz, and she would seek re-election in an open party vote.

“I wanted to share with you that even though I was elected as Meretz chairwoman for four years and its only been 2, I am willing to nominate myself for re-election right now,” she wrote.

“Now is the time to support what is right for Meretz, even if that means I will no longer serve as party leader. Open primaries are what is right for Meretz, and the Left as a whole. It’s time to open up the lines,” she said.

Galon said she would propose amendments to the party rules at the upcoming Meretz faction meeting and urged party members to participate in the election process.

“Meretz can be the beginning of a change in the left-wing camp, and from there, all of Israeli politics,” she said.

Though new general elections are officially only set for 2019, a number of parties have started preparations for the possibility they will take place within the next year due to Netanyahu’s investigations.

So far, both the Labor and Jewish Home parties have called for early primaries, while the centrist Yesh Atid last week announced that seven regional council heads from across the country were joining the party “in order to bring about change,” in a press conference widely seen as connected to preparations for new elections.

Yesh Atid is emerging as an increasing threat to the Likud, with a poll Friday suggesting it could block another Likud-led coalition.

Netanyahu was questioned by police for the fourth time last week, and police indicated a recommendation to the attorney general on whether to indict the prime minister would come soon.

Netanyahu is being probed in two separate cases, one involving gifts from wealthy businessmen and the other involving a suspected quid pro quo with the publisher of the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

It’s not clear if he would be forced to step down if he is indicted.