Likud supporter arrives in Jerusalem to vote
Likud supporter arrives in Jerusalem to voteIsrael news photo: Flash 90

The Likud primaries were back on track by early Sunday evening, and by 9:30 p.m., 46% of registered members --  56,684 people in all -- had voted. However, a serious malfunction in the computerized voting system earlier in the day made it necessary to extend the voting by two hours, to midnight – and there is possibility of a further extension.

The Likud's Election Committee was to meet again at 10:00 p.m. and decide whether voting would continue for another day. Various news sources  estimated that the committee would decide to continue the voting until Monday at 10:00 p.m.

There have been demands to fire Likud Party Director Gadi Arieli because of the malfunctions, but most of the anger appeared to be aimed at Amanet, the company that is in charge of the computerized vote.

Amanet Director Ben Aman told Channel 2 that he suspects that hackers intentionally caused the system to crash.

Before the malfunction was fixed, Minister Gideon Saar called the elections "a farce." He demanded that the vote be halted and started again at a new date. Minister Silvan Shalom also said that the voting would have to be extended by one day, or postponed until next week.