Prime Minister and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu is actively attempting to annul his party's primary elections and is weighing the option of creating an "arrangements committee", which he will lead, Ynet learned Wednesday.
Over recent days, Netanyahu has been discussing these plans with his associates and other top Likud officials and has claimed that the current method of choosing party members via primaries must cease to exist. "People who don't vote for the Likud, are the ones to determine our party's list at the end of the day," he warned.
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Netanyahu hinted that organized groups within the party's registered members are monopolizing the primaries and "are undemocratically pulling the strings of our party's list composition... This change must be instilled now, otherwise we will collapse," he added.
Netanyahu told associates that such a move, which is likely to encounter forceful opposition within the Likud, should be pursued prior to forming the new government and the distribution of cabinet portfolios – which can be used as leverage to secure the potential ministers' support.
- "After the portfolios are assigned, this move will be moot, because the ministers will be less indebted to him," an associate of Netanyahu's remarked.
Netanyahu is considering appointing an "arrangements committee," a method already practiced by Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman ,Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid, Hatnua Chairwoman Tzipi Livni ,Kadima Chairman Shaul Mofaz and others.
The topic was discussed Tuesday during a Likud-Beiteinu faction meeting at the Knesset. Minister Limor Livnat called for the annulment of primary elections and said that, "It is faulty from its foundation that people uninterested in voting for the Likud, will be those to determine the constitution of our Knesset party list."