Anger prevails within the Likud party after reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to reshuffle the party’s list for the upcoming elections by expanding the number of reserved seats whose occupants he will choose himself.
Party officials conveyed that Netanyahu is in a state of “hysteria” over the results of recent opinion polls, and fears that the current composition of the list could lead to losing the elections.
According to what the Ma’an news agency reported citing sources in Likud, Netanyahu told close associates in closed-door talks that “the composition of the list could cost us the election,” amid polls that, in his assessment, showed the current list is harming the party’s popularity.
Likud officials accuse Netanyahu of trying to impose near-total control over the party’s list by retaining an unprecedented number of reserved seats, which would allow him to push a number of senior members of the parliamentary bloc down from the top spots.
A senior party official said: “Instead of Likud primaries, this will become Netanyahu’s party,” adding that what is happening represents a “political purge” of a number of leaders who stood by him in recent years.
According to the reports, in addition to keeping the number-one spot, Netanyahu is demanding to reserve four additional seats within the top ten, along with six or seven more seats up to spot number thirty. He also intends to allocate a seat for Foreign Minister Gideon Saar within the top ranks.
The party institutions are scheduled to discuss these amendments in the coming days, before presenting them to the Likud Center for a vote, amid anticipation over whether party members will approve Netanyahu’s demands or reject them.
A source in Likud said that Netanyahu is acting “hysterically” as a result of the polls he is seeing, and believes that a radical change to the party’s list is the only way to stop Likud’s decline and restore its electoral momentum.
Source: Al-Manar English Website