Netanyahu’s Likud picks candidates for Israel election

Members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party voted Monday to select candidates for the October 27 general election, as the ruling right-wing party faces a potentially difficult contest.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, is seeking another term after years marked by controversial judicial reforms and the war that followed Hamas’s October 7 attack.

Opinion polls suggest Likud could lose significant ground, with its parliamentary representation potentially falling from 32 seats to as few as 22.

Around 140,000 Likud members were eligible to vote in Monday’s primary. Netanyahu has also reserved about 10 positions for candidates of his own choosing, a move local media have described as an effort to ensure greater loyalty within the party.

Some longtime party members criticised the arrangement. Avi, a 30-year-old Likud member, called the reserved seats undemocratic, saying, “They’ve destroyed Likud.” He added that he had yet to decide whom to support in the general election.

Others strongly backed Netanyahu. Elie Cohen, a 79-year-old member of Likud’s central committee, said he believed the prime minister had been “entrusted with a divine mission.”

Likud activists Narkis Alfi and Brouria Ben Yehouda also defended Netanyahu’s leadership.

Alfi said she believed Netanyahu wanted to bring “real change” by introducing younger and highly motivated figures to the party. Ben Yehouda described Likud as a diverse political movement representing Jews and Arabs from different backgrounds.

The primary also drew many religious and ultra-Orthodox Jewish voters, many of whom have joined Likud in recent years to advance their community’s interests.

Party officials, including several ministers, campaigned alongside lesser-known candidates, greeting supporters, posing for photographs and seeking votes.

Outgoing lawmaker Amit Halevy said he would have preferred fewer positions to be reserved for Netanyahu’s nominees but acknowledged that most candidates would still be selected through the primary process.

Turnout reached 53 percent, according to the party, up 10 percentage points from the previous Likud primary in 2022.

The turnout is being closely watched as an indicator of the party’s ability to mobilise its supporters ahead of the October 27 election.