Many ultra-Orthodox voters cast ballots for the first time in a Likud primary on Monday, sparking alarm among some activists in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party who claimed the new members were influencing the makeup of a slate that they do not intend to support in the October 27 general election.

“I asked them: ‘Is there any chance you’ll vote for Likud (in October)?’ They said, ‘No, we’re voting for United Torah Judaism or Shas, but we want to come and [have] influence,'” Likud Central Committee member Eli Zilka told The Times of Israel, standing outside a polling station in the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Shemesh.

Zilka said Haredi turnout was exceptionally high in both Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem.

While some party activists echoed Zilka’s concerns, many of those actually vying for spots saw it differently, as they looked for votes wherever they could get them.

Earlier this year, Likud’s ultra-Orthodox wing wrote to Netanyahu, warning that activists affiliated with the Knesset’s Haredi parties — Shas and United Torah Judaism — were infiltrating their movement in an effort to unduly influence the party from the inside.

According to Channel 12, around 7,000 of Likud’s roughly 140,000 members are Haredi, with nearly all of the major Hasidic groups now represented within the party.

Even figures formally affiliated with the Haredi parties were said to participate in the effort, including an unnamed Bnei Brak city councilman who represents Agudat Yisrael, a UTJ faction, while running an organized bloc of Likud voters.

One of the few parties to determine its electoral lineup via primary, Likud has long prided itself on its internal democratic process. However, changes to the system this year, pushed by Netanyahu, shrank the number of open spots on the roster and turned the vote into an unusually hotly contested race as party politicians jockeyed for a good enough showing to secure a likely Knesset seat.

While vying for reelection, Likud politicians increasingly courted the Haredi public, with Netanyahu, ministers including Israel Katz, Yariv Levin, Gideon Sa’ar and Shlomo Karhi, and MKs David Bitan, Boaz Bismuth, Hanoch Milwidsky and Moshe Saada regularly attending Haredi events as they campaigned for support ahead of Monday’s primary.

While Netanyahu later tried to distance himself from........

© The Times of Israel