Party legal adviser rules Likud can't hold another election for leader ahead of next general election following January 6 leadership primary.
By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) with Likud members at the party's primaries in 2012(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The Likud cannot hold another election for party leader ahead of the next general election following its January 6 leadership primary, Likud legal adviser Avi Halevy ruled Wednesday.Halevy overturned a decision by the Likud central committee on Sunday to hold a secret ballot vote on a proposal by Likud leadership candidate Moshe Feiglin to require another race for Likud leader if general elections are not held within six months.Feiglin’s proposal was voted on at the meeting in an open vote by a show of hands.He said he obtained a clear majority, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s associates thought otherwise and central committee chairman Danny Danon, who chaired the meeting, said too many members voted twice.Danon proposed to bring Feiglin’s proposal to a secret ballot vote, and the committee approved the idea. But Halevy canceled the vote, ruling that holding such a vote would go against the Likud constitution.Halevy wrote that just as the Likud elects the rest of its Knesset list only once, the same must hold true for the list’s top candidate, who is the party chairman. He also said it was illegal for Feiglin to raise the proposal, because it was not on the agenda of the central committee 14 days in advance.Feiglin responded that he was considering appealing Halevy’s decision to the Tel Aviv District Court.“Halevy’s ruling is a sad joke,” he said. “It returns the Likud to its bad old days when the party was dirty.”
