Israel: Meretz party holds primaries, to announce new leader by evening

More than 18,000 members of the left-wing Meretz party were called to the polls on Tuesday to draw up the list of the faction and appoint its leader for the next Israeli general elections, which will take place on November 1.

With 39 polling stations that will be open across the country from 2:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. the first results are expected to be announced about an hour later. Party members will be able to choose the chairman and four other candidates of their choice.

The main competition is between former party chief Zehava Galon and lawmaker Yair Golan, who served as an Israeli army general.  

"We are a party that sees all rights intertwined. We are not talking about “separating the Palestinians,” we are talking about negotiations and understanding, we are talking about upholding all human rights for all the world," Zehava Galon, who led Meretz from 2013 to 2019, said in an interview with Channel 12. 

Yair Golan, for his part, regrets the party is currently "elitist, closed, exclusive and bitter" centered on Tel Aviv, as he told WallaNews. He advocates "separation of the Palestinians," which he says should be the central banner around which the party rallies. 

Meretz was previously led by Israel’s Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, who stepped down as party head following the collapse of the government coalition. According to recent polls, Meretz is expected to get between five and six seats in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, in the upcoming elections. 

Earlier in August, Galon submitted a request to Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara to open a criminal investigation against Israel's former prime minister and Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu over suspicion of alleged bribery and breach of trust.