Overview
- The Likud held internal primaries on Tuesday with votes tallied at 107 polling sites and the party reporting 53.5% turnout, or 75,177 members who cast ballots.
- Final counts confirmed Energy Minister Eli Cohen as the top vote‑getter and produced a broad reshuffle that pushed several senior ministers and longtime MPs into likely non‑viable positions on the party list.
- Candidates and party officials filed formal complaints about counting at the Yeruham station and about errors on membership rolls, alleging erased or altered vote records that the Likud Central Election Committee is still handling.
- Post‑primary seat polls published after the count give divergent pictures of bloc strength, with some surveys showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right‑wing bloc with a working majority and others keeping the anti‑Netanyahu bloc narrowly ahead when Arab lists are excluded.
- Coverage reflects different takes: right‑leaning outlets stress a Netanyahu rebound and a larger right bloc, while centrist and left outlets highlight Likud losses and the high political cost for veteran loyalists, a split that underscores how small shifts in votes or threshold outcomes could flip control of the Knesset.