The Likud primaries began on time in 400 voting booths at 88 polling stations across the country – but in three others - Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, and Mevaseret Zion - the polls opened late because of a technical communications foul-up.
The glitch, which affected many cellular phone users in the capital and environs as well, was fixed shortly after noon, and the voting is now underway throughout the country. The polls will be open until 11 PM - an hour later than scheduled.
Feiglin-Endorsement Drama
The party’s Jewish Leadership faction, headed by Moshe Feiglin, caused some extra drama by not announcing some of his preferred candidates until 8 AM this morning. The final list came as something of an anti-climax, however; only nine candidates - out of 12 - were listed, and the voters were advised that they should choose three more from an additional list of 20 candidates.
In addition, among the nine are Benny Begin, Gideon Saar, Ruby Rivlin, Moshe Kachlon, and Gilad Erdan – about whom the Feiglin camp stated, “They will receive high vote tallies even without your vote, so you can replace them with others” on the same list of 20.
Some 150 candidates are running for spots on the list of Knesset candidates that will be fielded by the Likud in the national elections two months from now. The candidates will be ranked on the list according to the amount of votes they receive from among the nearly 100,000 registered Likud voters. However, certain slots have been reserved for representatives of certain sectors, such as new immigrants, women, non-Jews, and the young (up to age 35).
In addition, it is suspected that party chairman Binyamin Netanyahu has plans to include a group of candidates from another party. Just last week, he asked for approval for a proposed change to the party’s charter which would allow the Central Committee to allow a new party to be incorporated into the Likud. He has not specified which, if any, party he has in mind.
Though the towns in Judea and Samaria are heavily weighted with Likud supporters, the number of polling stations is only eight. Jewish Leadership alleges that this was done purposely by the Netanyahu leadership in order to cut back on support for Feiglin and his candidates, much of which is centered in Judea and Samaria.
In the meantime, the Likud was fined 10,000 shekels for contempt of court by not sending a representative to a hearing about a dispute over slot #25, the reserved spot for non-Jews. The party allowed former MK Ayoub Kara to run for this spot, and other candidates appealed, saying that his status as a former MK gives him an unfair advantage and that he must run on the national list instead. The court ruled that the winner of the #25 slot must not be publicized until the issue is resolved.
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