MKs Gideon Sa'ar, Gilad Erdan, and Reuven Rivlin won the top three slots in yesterday's Likud party primaries. They will fill the leading places after Party chairman MK Benjamin Netanyahu, who will head the list that will run in the February 2009 general elections. Activist Moshe Feiglin, who is challenging Netanyahu from the right, won 20th place.
Benny Begin, the son of late Prime Minister Menachem Begin, will be 5th on the Knesset list, followed by MK Moshe Kahlon, former foreign and finance minister MK Silvan Shalom and former IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon, who will be sixth, seventh and eighth on the Knesset list respectively.
During the day, party officials deliberated whether to extend the voting, or even continue the primaries the following day. Voting was extended from 11 pm to 1 am. Nonetheless, only half of the 99,000 eligible party voters cast ballots: 48,458. Netanyahu commented, "There is no doubt that there is much to be improved with the electronic system."
After the primaries closed, Netanyahu gave a speech on the dais, alongside the new party list. He said, "This is the best team that any party can offer our country. Regrettably, many people did not vote, due to technical problems of the computerized voting system. Nonetheless, Likud voters showed their supreme civic duty, and I salute them."
Official Likud sources expressed satisfaction with the party's candidate list. One source was pleased that Feiglin was kept out of the top ten.
Other successful candidates include MK Yuval Steinitz in 8th place (9th on the Knesset list), Leah Ness in 9th place, MK Israel Katz in 10th place, MK and former minister of education Limor Livnat in 12th place, former Likud MK Dan Meridor in 16th place, Miri Regev in 33rd place, and former Israel Police Commissioner Assaf Hefetz in 37th place, which puts him 38th on the list for the Knesset.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 9, 2008
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