Likud MK proposes bill to stop New Likudniks
After Likud party limits new members registration in effort to stop mass signup of the 'New Likudniks,' MK Yoav Kisch proposes bill to ensure faction members will vote for Likud in general elections, ensuring the New Likudniks will not carry out Likud revolution while potentially violating registration secrecy.
MK Yoav Kisch (Likud) announced he is planning to submit a bill aimed at neutralizing the influence of the New Likudniks movement.
Many officials in the Likud, including Coalition Chairperson David Bitan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have come out against the New Likudniks, describing them as a left-wing movement attempting to take over the party, who have registered to vote in its primary elections as a way to destroy the party from within, without any intention to even vote for it in the general elections.
The New Likudniks claim that they are a centrist group that aims to "bring back the Likud's values of old," moving it away for the extreme right-wing views they claim are currently ruining its original goals of upholding the rule of law, strengthening ethical and moral stances and fighting corruption.
Kisch's proposal stipulates that any person who votes in a party's primaries would be considered as if they had cast their voted for said party in the general elections.
Over the past week, the Likud party has acted to limit the registration of those looking to sign up as new members in an effort to stop the mass registration of the "New Likudniks," a movement that currently has over 12,000 members.
Somewhat contradictively, Kisch himself is rumored among Likud activists to be supported by the New Likudniks. Kisch denied these claims on his Facebook page on Sunday, writing that he intends to push for a vote on his future bill immediately after the Knesset's summer recess ends.
The proposal additionally states that immediately after the primaries, each party will transfer to the Central Elections Committee the details of all those who have participated in the internal elections. Those voters will be counted as votes for their respective parties and deleted from the voter registrar.
While the proposal is likely to receive support from such Likud leaders as Netanyahu and Bitan, it is probably encounter legal problems, since the transfer of personal voter information to the Central Elections Committee undermines the general elections' principle of secrecy.
Kisch referred to the problem in the wording of the bill and asked that the Central Elections Committee be required to keep the file of names secret and to destroy it immediately after the elections. According to Kisch, he appealed to the Knesset's legal advisor and was told that in order for the bill to pass in the High Court of Justice, a majority of 61 MKs would be required to vote for it.
"A democratic party has a right to defend itself from harm from within," said Kisch on Sunday. "The right to influence a party's list of candidates will be reserved for voters of that party. In that way, we avoid the moral sin of joining a party as a Trojan horse."
