Likud lawmaker challenges Netanyahu plan to replace primaries with appointed committee

Likud MK David Bitan filed an urgent petition on Sunday with the party’s internal court, seeking to block Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to shape the party list through a steering committee instead of the primaries required by Likud’s bylaws. The petition was submitted through attorney Yifat Meirovitz-Yefet.

Bitan called the move a “constitutional coup” and said it amounts to changing the rules in the middle of the internal race, about a month before the primaries are scheduled. He argued that the plan would violate the rights of tens of thousands of Likud members to choose and be elected, contradict the party’s constitution, clash with earlier rulings by the Likud court, and damage members’ trust and the party’s public standing.

“The Likud was and will remain a democratic movement,” Bitan said. “It is impossible to deprive tens of thousands of members of their right to choose their representatives to the Knesset a month before the primaries and change the rules while the game is underway. I believe in Likud members and in their right to decide, not in an appointed committee.”

In the petition, Bitan asks for a temporary injunction to stop any effort to cancel the primaries and establish a steering committee. He also wants the court to rule that even if the party has the power to change its constitution, such a change cannot apply to the upcoming election cycle and could take effect only from the next one. In addition, he demands that any vote on a constitutional change be held by secret ballot. One of the main arguments cited is a series of decisions issued by the Likud court earlier this month.