Following Revivo and Passal: Another MK withdraws from Likud primaries

Likud MK Tsega Melaku announced today (Friday) her withdrawal from the party's primaries ahead of the 26th Knesset elections. The MK's decision comes after the party's court accepted a petition against her, preventing her from running for the new immigrants' slot on the list. Melaku, who immigrated to Israel in the eighties, was blocked from running in this slot following a petition filed against her by candidate Eddie Cohen.

The petition that led to Melaku's disqualification from running in the immigrants' slot was based on the Likud constitution, according to which only those who immigrated to Israel from 1993 onwards are eligible to run for this slot. Melaku is the third MK to withdraw from the current race in Likud, after MKs Eliyahu Revivo and Moshe Passal also announced their withdrawal from the primaries. These withdrawals join the decisions of ministers and MKs Yuli Edelstein, Dan Illouz, and Galit Distel-Atbaryan not to run.

Yesterday, the Likud party published the final list for the primaries to be held on Monday, after all petitioners withdrew their petitions, thus ending the legal crisis that threatened to delay the internal elections. The list includes all incumbent ministers and MKs, except for Yuli Edelstein and Dan Illouz who left the movement, as well as Eliyahu Revivo who announced at the last moment that he would not run.

Alongside the incumbent MKs, new candidates are also running in the national list who received approval from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to shorten the required seniority period, including Deputy Minister Almog Cohen, Dror Kapach, Shai Kalach, and Eli Shtivi. On the other hand, Smadar Mores withdrew her candidacy from the "New Woman" list and will not participate in the primaries.