Recount in Likud primary votes ordered as internal battle continues
Fight for 20th slot on Likud Knesset list heats up as Likud High Court accepts Dichter's appeal to recount all the votes.
The internal Likud drama ensued after several recounts showed different results as to which candidate would receive the 20th spot on the Likud list. The battle is between former Shin Bet head Avi Dichter and Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotovely.
According to the decision made by the Likud high court, all the votes for Dichter and Hotovely will be recounted – Hotevely has demanded an additional proceeding to be held regarding the Likud high court's decision.
The head of the Likud's high court, former MK Michael Kleiner, ruled that the new count would be carried out as such: Every ticket in which Dichter and Hotovely were voted for among the other 11 candidates will not be counted. The same will apply for tickets where both the candidates were not voted for. All the tickets where only Dichter or Hotovely were voted for will be counted – this will show the true difference in votes between the two candidates.
Dichter, who ranked below Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotovely in the most recent recounts of the votes, slammed the voting process that took place, saying it was fraught with irregularities and fruad.
"Today it is absolutely clear that hundreds of votes were obtained fraudulently, using a double envelope. The same votes were counted within several days up to one week after the official vote count and led to an absurd situation, in which Hotovely defeated all the candidates and was allegedly in the first place among all Likud candidates in the polling stations in question," he said.
Dichter subsequently petitioned the Likud's high court and demanded a recount and it was this petition that the high court approved on Friday – likely a move that would once again ignite an internal Likud blow out.
Meanwhile, Hotovely has already demanded that the Likud High Court set up another hearing on the matter – an attempt to protect her position on the 20th slot of the Likud list.
Whoever loses the recount battle will be moved to the 26th spot – as the 21-25 spots are reserved for other candidates when the government is formulated.
