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Energy minister Eli Cohen looked set to have won first place in the Likud primaries as counting of the votes cast in the race to choose party candidates for the October 27 general election continued in the early hours today.
Others who are expected to have secured top spots on the ballot include Knesset speaker Amir Ohana, justice minister Yariv Levin and transportation minister Miri Regev.
Polls closed on Monday night after 11 hours of voting for candidates to represent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political in two months’ time. Just over half (53.5 per cent) of the party’s roughly 140,000 members turned out to vote, a party spokesman told The Times of Israel. This was less than at the 2022 primary when 58 per cent voted.
Likud is one of the only political parties in Israel to choose its candidates in this way, something it has long been proud of, but changes to the system this year have allowed Netanyahu to handpick eight candidates for the top 30 spots, while another place was allocated to the defence minister Israel Katz.
The party’s candidates are projected to win roughly 22 and 24 seats, according to opinion polls, compared to the 32 it currently holds.
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