Haredi Networks Mobilize Thousands of Members in Likud Slate Primary
About 7,000 Haredi members are registered to vote in Monday's Likud primary, out of roughly 140,000 eligible party members, enough to sway a slate slot that requires only a few thousand votes. The Seret Vizhnitz hasidic court in Haifa is the largest bloc with about 2,000 registered members, and Gur hasidim registered widely under Elazar Gordon and Moti Babchik. Organizers cite institutional budgets, bus lines to Haredi neighborhoods, Uman flights and aid for yeshiva students, and most are expected to back the Haredi parties in the general election. At a polling station in Elad, voters covered photographs of female candidates and asked female party activists to leave on modesty grounds.
