News
Likud list finalised with deadline to submit election candidates today
The Likud Party finalised its list of electoral candidates yesterday, with the deadline for submitting Knesset candidate lists expiring at 10pm today.
Although primaries for the Likud party list took place a month ago, three outstanding slots remained unfilled until yesterday. Two places were reserved for candidates of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s choosing. He yesterday announced that both would be filled by female academics. The 11th slot goes to Dr Anat Berko, an anti-terrorism expert at the Interdisciplinary Centre in Herzliya. The 23rd slot has been handed to Dr Limor Samimian-Darash, an assistant professor of Public Policy and Government at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, it was also confirmed yesterday that the coveted 20th slot on the Likud list will go to Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely, rather than Avi Dichter, after a recount at Dichter’s request found that he had lost by 101 votes.
In other election news, football legend Eli Ohana has stood down as a Jewish Home candidate. This follows disquiet over Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett’s decision to recruit and apparently place him in the 10th slot on the party’s list of electoral candidates. Ohana had no prior political experience and has previously expressed support for Israel’s disengagement from Gaza in 2005, a position at odds with party policy.
Although Ohana’s reputation as a football icon may have boosted Jewish Home’s chances of expanding support beyond its traditional religious, right-wing base, the move was condemned by some of the party’s most prominent members. Most notably, MK Zevulun Kalfa has resigned from the party and other Knesset candidates have threatened not to campaign.
A Channel Ten poll yesterday indicated that the Zionist Camp, headed by Labour’s Isaac Herzog and Hatnuah’s Tzipi Livni, will be the largest faction in the next Knesset with 25 seats, followed by Likud on 23. Jewish Home, even after the Ohana controversy, is predicted to win 16 seats, followed by the joint Arab list on 12 mandates. Meanwhile, the poll predicted just four seats for Yisrael Beitenu.