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Gideon Saar comes third in Likud Primaries
Gideon Saar, a leading rival of Benjamin Netanyahu came third in Israel’s Likud party primary elections held yesterday, despite a campaign by Netanyahu to undermine his support.
With 75 per cent of the votes counted, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and Yisrael Katz, Minister for Transportation came first and second. 70,000 registered members voted, a turnout of 58%, up from 52% in 2015. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan came fourth and Culture Minister Miri Regev came fifth.
In sixth place is Netanyahu-loyalist Tourism Minister Yariv Levin; in seventh place is Nir Barkat, the former Mayor of Jerusalem and eighth place Yoav Galant a retired Major-General who defected from Kulanu in 2018; in ninth place is former Shin Bet Chief Avi Dichter and Gila Gamliel is tenth, the second woman in the top ten. Deputy Foreign Minister, Tzipi Hotovely came 12th.
The 11-20 spots are filled out by several Netanyahu loyalists including Dudi Amsalem in 14th; Science Minister Ofir Akunis in 15th; Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz in 16th; Amir Ohana, the party’s first openly gay MK in 17th, Tzahi Hanegbi in 18th, Yoav Kisch in 19th and David Bitan in 20th.
The last viable slots due to the integration of district vote winners are the 21st and 22nd spot. These were filled by Miki Zohar and Sharren Haskel.
Below the 22nd spot, candidates are unlikely to win Knesset seats in the April elections. Among these lower ranked spots were the Druze Minister Ayoub Kara, Yehudah Glick, right wing populist Oren Hazan, and Nir Hirschman, the representative for the centrist New Likudniks.
In early analysis this morning, Channel 12 news political commentator Amit Segal said the initial results highlight the limitations of Netanyahu’s power over the party and the likely leaders in the battle to be his eventual successor.
Full results are expected on Wednesday afternoon.