Binyamin Netanyahu can once again be the Likud’s candidate for Prime Minister, the party’s election committee chairman ruled Wednesday.
The ruling came in response to a statement by the party’s comptroller, Shai Galilee, who said that Netanyahu had disqualified himself because of violations of the Likud constitution – specifically, using party resources for his personal election campaign, instead of for party efforts.
According to Galilee, Netanyahu has violated the principle of “equal opportunity” in the Likud’s constitution; by using party resources to advance himself, he has gained an unfair advantage, especially given his top status in the party.
In response, Netanyahu aides said that Galilee was “a political hack who has made a very strange decision that is motivated by political interests, besides being irrelevant.”
That “irrelevance”, or non-binding nature of the ruling, was not just a declaration by Netanyahu supporters but the opinion of the top election official in the Likud – Menachem Ne’eman, who said that Galilee’s declaration was “terribly damaging to the party, in light of the fierce competition the Likud faces in this election, besides being irrelevant, as it would deny party members their right to choose the leader of the party, whether they plan to vote for Netanyahu or Danny Danon,” the only other candidate for the Likud’s prime ministerial candidacy.
The election takes places on December 31.
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