Energy Minister Eli Cohen won the first slot in the Likud’s Knesset slate; it was confirmed on Tuesday, following the counting of the votes in the ruling party’s primaries held across the country on Monday.
The voter turnout reached 53.5%, with 76,068 party members voting in the primaries, up about 10 percentage points from the primaries held four years ago, taking into account the difference in voting hours, the Likud stated.
The primaries came amid fierce internal tensions over changes that have expanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s control over the party’s Knesset slate, making the primaries more competitive than in past years. The prime minister was granted the authority to determine eight slots within the first 30 spots on the party list last month following a vote on the controversial decision by the Likud Central Committee.
Cohen was followed at the top of the Likud slate by Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and Justice Minister Yariv Levin, alongside Transportation Minister Miri Regev and coalition chairman Ofir Katz to round out the top five.
The rest of the top 10 consists of Education Minister Yoav Kisch, Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar, Deputy Minister Almog Cohen, Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli, and MK David Amsalem.
MKs Moshe Saada and Tally Gotliv, the latter of whom was reportedly targeted for “political elimination” by the prime minister, received realistic slots ahead of the upcoming election.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and MKs Boaz Bismuth, Nir Barkat, and David Bitan were all hovering around the cutoff for realistic Knesset slots.
Women’s Advancement Minister May Golan, Innovation, Science, and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel, Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman, and MKs Hanoch Milwidsky, Keti Shitrit, Ariel Kallner, Avi Dichter, and Nissim Vaturi have not reached realistic positions and are expected to remain outside the Knesset.
Based on current polling, only two women appear to have made it to realistic slots on the party’s list: Gotliv and Regev.
After the completion of the vote count, Netanyahu hailed Likud’s new list as one of “renewal and integration,” adding that he was very pleased with the results.
“The new Likud list reflects renewal and the integration of new figures at the top of the list,” the party stated. “Together with the reserved slots to be filled, which will further strengthen the list, the Likud team led by Netanyahu will lead the party to a major victory and the establishment of a broad national government immediately after the election.”
"This is the only way to prevent a left-wing government made up of Eisenkot, Yair Golan, Liberman, and the Arab parties," the Knesset's ruling party added.
Because of the slots reserved by Netanyahu, candidates ranked as high as 17th initially could be pushed as low as 25th on the final adjusted slate. The district slots also affect the picture: the candidate ranked 18th in the raw results will be placed 32nd on the adjusted slate.
Likud had announced last week that one of Netanyahu’s first reserved slots would go to entrepreneur and businessman Oren Dobronsky. Additional reserved slots were later granted by Netanyahu to three ministers: Defense Minister Israel Katz, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, and Likud Central Committee Chairman Haim Katz, who also holds multiple ministerial portfolios.
Accusations of fraud at Likud polling station in Yeruham
Overnight, Golan and MK Amit Halevi filed complaints with the Likud Central Election Committee, demanding an immediate halt to the vote count at the Yeroham polling station, alleging repeated incidents of erasures, alterations, and vote markings were taking place during the count in ways that did not correspond with the names of the candidates being read aloud.
In some cases, the records were corrected only after the observer at the site intervened and demanded the amendments.
Golan and Halevi demanded that the count be stopped immediately and that a reinforced team of lawyers and Election Committee representatives be sent to the polling station.
Additionally, following a report by Amit Segal that Netanyahu had received polls showing that Likud would lose seats if Gotliv were elected near the top of the slate, and Netanyahu’s statement that he trusted Likud members to make the right considerations, Gotliv wrote on X/Twitter on Tuesday morning that some polling stations had forged forms that did not include her name.
“Stay alert. Likud functionaries and vote contractors are hysterical over the power of the free votes,” she wrote.
Rival Gadi Eisenkot sharply criticized the results of the Likud primaries and the candidates, saying no celebratory statements or “victory” parties will be able to hide the fact that the Likud slate for the 26th Knesset is “the October 7 slate.”
“These are the very same people who shamelessly divided Israeli society and blindly led Israel into the worst disaster since the establishment of the state,” Eisenkot stated.
“Among them are also the five members of the failed cabinet who were there on the eve of the war and who bear responsibility for the most appalling dereliction of duty imaginable.”
“Instead of taking responsibility, they clung to their seats at any cost and compounded their failure by enabling mass draft evasion during wartime.”
“They do not know how to lead Israel to victory, they cannot unite Israel, and above all, they do not deserve to continue leading the country,” he added.
The Likud primaries were held throughout Monday, with polling stations opening at 10 a.m. and closing at 9 p.m., with a total of 107 designated polling sites set up across the country.
Likud has long prided itself on holding primaries in which registered members can vote for the Knesset list. Parties are not required to hold primaries in Israel, and only a few do so.
The party has 40 ministers and MKs serving in the government and Knesset, but recent polls project the party winning only around 22 seats, intensifying competition for realistic spots on the party’s Knesset slate.
Shir Perets, Tal Spungin, and Avi Solomon contributed to this report.