Drama right before the vote: Approximately 4,500 members of the Likud Central Committee were scheduled to vote today (Thursday) on the proposal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister Haim Katz, who also serves as the chairman of the Constitution Committee and chairman of the Likud Central Committee, to approve the regulations for the primaries and grant Netanyahu personal reservations on the Knesset list.
Following the court's intervention, the Likud announced that the elections scheduled for today are canceled.
According to the proposal that was supposed to be put to a vote, the party chairman would receive eight seats on the Likud list for the Knesset - three of the seats would be placed in the top ten, three in the second ten, and two more later on the list.
However, minutes before the scheduled vote, the Lod District Court accepted the petition of the Social Forum, which is affiliated with the National Federation of Labor, and issued an injunction that halts the proceedings at this stage, until an alternative proposal is presented for voting.
The social forum alongside the National Federation of Labor said: "This is a victory for common sense. We will not allow the Likud movement to steal the elections. The social forum alongside the National Federation of Labor will continue to be the umbrella organization for 150,000 Likud leaders.".
The vote, which is supposed to be held secretly, is considered of great importance for Netanyahu, as approving the proposal will give him broad influence over the composition of the Likud list for the next Knesset.
