2026 The Democrats primaries

The Israeli Labor Party won 4 seats out of 120 in the 2022 Israeli legislative election, while Meretz failed to pass the electoral threshold for the first time in its history.^[1] Merav Michaeli resigned from the Labor Party leadership, with Yair Golan, a retired general and former Meretz MK, elected in May 2024 to succeed her.^[2] Golan's party leadership platform included establishing a new political framework that would unite Labor, Meretz, and other organizations on the political left, to be called The Democrats.^[3][4] Golan, whose candidacy for leader was supported by incumbent MKs Naama Lazimi and Gilad Kariv,^[5] won the leadership election with 95% of the vote,^[2] and signed a political unification agreement (without a full merger) between Meretz and Labor, which included a commitment to reserve a share of the seats for former Meretz members in the unified party's list. The agreement was signed on 30 June 2024^[6] and the merger was approved by the parties in July the same year.^[7]

Every member of the party who joined at least one week before the primary was eligible to vote; the number of eligible voters was 112,638.^[8]

The electoral system was based on that used for the last Israeli Labor Party Knesset primary in 2022. A multiple non-transferable vote system was used, with each voter having 6 to 8 votes, with the candidates having the most votes being placed higher in the list, subject to a zipper rule between men and women and quotas of reserved places.

Places 6, 8, and 14 were reserved for Meretz candidates, while places 12, 13, 18, 23, and 27 were reserved for rural (Kibbutz and Moshav residents) and minority (Arab and Druze) candidates. Though there was one rural reservation and four minority reservations, these were to be assigned together based on the number of votes; Meretz's reservations were assigned separately. In addition, the party leader has the right to appoint two candidates in every ten places, but not to the detriment of Meretz's reservations.^[9] The party's administration could change the positioning of up to two candidates, including those elected for the reserved quota, at the proposal of the party leader, for reasons of "the good of the Party, its electoral success, or if the candidate is found to undermine the Party's principles", subject to a hearing.^[8] Golan did not exercise his right to reserve candidates.^[10]

51 candidates were registered,^[11] excluding candidates who announced their intention to run but withdrew from official registration.

Prominent persons who announced their intention to run but withdrew include Ami Dror^[12] and Ronen Tzur.^[13]

Incumbent MKs Naama Lazimi, Gilad Kariv, and Efrat Rayten were placed at the top of the list (immediately after Golan, who became lead candidate automatically as party leader), with 87,774, 83,084, and 73,915 votes respectively. Turnout stood at 86%, with nearly 97,000 members out of the party's approximately 113,000 casting their vote.^[14]

More information Candidate, Votes ...

Results of party list primary^[15][16]

Candidate		Votes	%	Eligible reservations			Pos.	Notes
				Meretz	Rural	Minority
	Yair Golan	—N/a					1st	Position as party leader
	Naama Lazimi (incumbent)	87,774	90.28				2nd
	Gilad Kariv (incumbent)	83,084	85.46				3rd
	Efrat Rayten (incumbent)	73,915	76.03				4th
	Yaya Fink	66,915	68.12				5th
	Gaby Lasky	35,493	36.51				6th	Position elevated to ensure Meretz's seat reservation
	Omri Ronen	43,246	44.48				7th	Position lowered due to Meretz's reserved seats
	Michal Rozin	23,345	24.01				8th	Position elevated to ensure Meretz's seat reservation
	Moshe Radman	39,583	40.71				9th	Position lowered due to Meretz's reserved seats
	Somaya Bashir	18,848	19.39				10th	Position elevated per gender balancing rules
	Nimrod Sheffer	37,355	38.42				11th	Position lowered due to reserved seats and gender balancing rules
	Moran Zer Katzenstein	17,005	17.49				12th	Position elevated per gender balancing rules; the reservation of the 12th seat to a minority or rural candidate was relinquished as an eligible candidate (Somaya Bashir) received enough votes to be elected to a higher position on the list
	Avi Dabush	17,772	18.28				13th	The reservation of the 13th seat to a minority or rural candidate was relinquished as an eligible candidate (Avi Dabush) received enough votes to be elected to that position on the list without it
	Emilie Moatti	14,174	14.58				14th	The reservation of the 14th seat to a Meretz candidate was relinquished as an eligible candidate (Avi Dabush) received enough votes to be elected to a higher position on the list
	Tomer Avital	16,193	17.40				15th	Position lowered due to gender balancing rules
	Nava Rozolyo	12,232	12.58				16th	Position elevated per gender balancing rules
	Ram Shefa	15,596	16.04				17th	Position lowered due to reserved seats and gender balancing rules
	Ali Salalha	13,174	13.55				18th	Position elevated to ensure minority seat reservation
	Rotem Sivan	11,120	11.44				19th	Position elevated per gender balancing rules
	Eran Etzion	15,473	15.91				20th	Position lowered due to gender balancing rules
	Moran Michel	8,245	8.48				21st	Position elevated per gender balancing rules
	Naor Narkis	15,345	15.78				22nd	Position lowered due to gender balancing rules
	Nidal Masalha	8,053	8.28				23rd	Position elevated to ensure minority seat reservation
	Katy Piasecki-Morag	8,084	8.31				24th	Position elevated per gender balancing rules
	Mossi Raz	14,413	14.82				25th	Position lowered due to gender balancing rules
	Mehereta Baruch-Ron	5,884	6.05				26th	Position elevated per gender balancing rules
	Ghaleb Salamaneh	4,884	5.02				27th	Position elevated to ensure minority seat reservation
	Inbar Bezek	4,311	4.43				28th	Position elevated per gender balancing rules
	Yariv Oppenheimer	11,115	11.43				29th	Position lowered due to gender balancing rules
	Chen Arieli	3,934	3.91				30th
	Danny Elgarat	9,432	9.70				31st	Position lowered due to gender balancing rules
	Yael Cohen Paran	3,790	3.90				32nd	Position elevated per gender balancing rules
	Amir Khnifess	3,979	4.05				33rd	Position lowered due to gender balancing rules
	Hadas Regolsky	2,950	3.03				34th
	Ihab Shalyan	2,653	2.73				35th
	Inbal Wertman Shoham	2,273	2.34				36th	Position elevated per gender balancing rules
	Ahsan Halaila	2,566	2.64				37th	Position lowered due to gender balancing rules
	Lee Hoffman-Agiv	2,066	2.13				38th	Position elevated per gender balancing rules
	Ayid Badir	2,542	2.61				39th	Position lowered due to gender balancing rules
	Alice Goldman	1,153	1.19				40th	Position elevated per gender balancing rules
	Itay Leshem	2,316	2.38				41st	Position lowered due to gender balancing rules
	Gil Beilin	1,421	1.46				42nd
	Eran Nissan	1,364	1.40				43rd
	Malik Badir	1,063	1.09				44th
	Yair Rubinstein	776	0.80				45th
	Dima Shapira	596	0.61				46th
	Evyatar Be'er	365	0.38				47th
	Binaymin Daniel Minich	330	0.34				48th
	Yaron Niv	236	0.24				49th
	Yoav Agami	173	0.18				50th
	Avishay Liechtenstein	149	0.15				51st
	Olivier Emmanuel De Lame	145	0.15				52nd

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