Katz and Bitan Oppose Digital Primaries in Likud Party to Netanyahu

Israeli Minister Haim Katz and Knesset member David Bitan have conveyed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu their opposition to holding electronic voting in the Likud party primaries. Each opposes the move for different reasons. The party's election committee convened on Thursday to discuss the issue, where both expressed strong resistance to digital primaries.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Netanyahu is preparing for the possibility of digital voting to determine the party's Knesset candidate list. He was impressed by the Democratic Party's recent secure digital primaries, which saw high voter turnout. The primary motivation for considering digital voting is concern over potential security escalations.

Besides security concerns, two other advantages of digital primaries are significant cost savings for the party and reducing the influence of pressure groups that mainly operate at physical polling stations. The main proponent of the digital voting idea is Likud's acting CEO, David Sharan. Currently, Netanyahu has suggested electronic voting only in complex security scenarios, but his close circle believes it could be implemented even without such a scenario.