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Likud Dropped Digital Primary Voting After Cyber Warning of Foreign Interference

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Courtroom-sketch editorial illustration of a party primary polling station: a light-blue metal ballot box with a padlocked lid and a large handwritten paper label stands on a small draped table in the left foreground, a polling official sits behind it half-hidden by the box, and the wall beyond is papered with overlapping blue campaign banners and posters showing a grey-haired party leader beside a national flag, with a stacking chair and a second table receding into the room at right, all drawn

Likud examined moving its Knesset slate primary to digital voting before the August 17 race, then kept the manual paper method after cyber officials warned that foreign actors could disrupt the results. The concern centered on possible Iranian attempts to interfere in the party's internal election. Party sources offered a second explanation, saying the paper system preserves the influence of the operatives who bring members to the polls. Turnout reached 75,177 voters, about 53 percent of roughly 140,000 eligible members, across 107 polling stations during an 11-hour voting day. The opposition Democrats party ran its own primary digitally by mobile phone and drew more than 97,000 voters.

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