Bayit Yehudi to hold digital primary

The Bayit Yehudi Party will become the first party with representation in the Knesset to hold an online primary to select its candidates, leader Naftali Bennett announced over the weekend.

The only party before to hold a primary on the Internet is the Zehut Party of former MK Moshe Feiglin, which currently has no MKs and polls show will not cross the electoral threshold in the next election.

“Holding digital primaries has a significant advantage,” Bennett said. “There will be higher turnout, because voting will be easier. We are moving forward with this innovative and extraordinary step, and I promise more surprises ahead.”

Bennett said holding the primary online, instead of in 150 locations across the country, would save the party some 90% of the NIS 2.5 million the primary would have cost. He said Bayit Yehudi would instead use the money for its election campaign.

A special new system will be used for the vote that will provide protection from cyber-attacks and ensure anonymity for the 30,000 members of the party who are eligible to vote. But just in case, there would still be a polling station in each of five major cities for those who do not feel comfortable voting online.

Bayit Yehudi will hold a convention in two weeks in which the system for the vote will be presented. Bennett will ask the 1,000 members of the party’s central committee to allow him reserved slots for two Knesset candidates he will choose himself among the party’s top 10, one more than the party’s bylaws currently permit him.

There had been fears in the party that Bennett would propose canceling the primary at the convention, and instead institute a different system for electing MKs, such as a selection committee led by Bennett. But those fears have proven to be unfounded.

A source close to Bennett called those concerns “crazy rumors.”

The event will also showcase the party’s candidates in the October 30 municipal election. Bayit Yehudi submitted 66 lists in races around the country. Some 20 of them are joint lists with other parties.