Energy Minister Eli Cohen was poised to win first place in the Likud party primary after operatives from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s finished counting over half of the vote before dawn on Tuesday.

Cohen was trailed by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, Transportation Minister Miri Regev and coalition whip Ofir Katz.

After ballots from 302 of 501 total polling stations across the country were counted, the results were as follows:

1. Eli Cohen 2. Yariv Levin 3. Amir Ohana 4. Miri Regev 5. Ofir Katz 6. Yoav Kisch 7. Miki Zohar 8. Almog Cohen 9. Amichai Chikli 10. David Amsalem 11. Moshe Saada 12. David Bitan 13. Tally Gotliv 14. Shlomo Karhi 15. Nir Barkat 16. Boaz Bismuth

Given that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has consistently been polling in the low 20s, and given that roughly one-third of the first 30 slots on the Likud list are reserved for candidates hand-picked by the premier, those who do not finish in the top 16 in the Likud primary are not expected to make it into the next Knesset.

If the current results hold, that would mean current ministers Ze’ev Elkin, Gila Gamliel, May Golan, Idit Silman and Avi Dichter will be out of a job come October, along with current Likud MKs Hanoch Milwidsky, Keti Shitrit, Ariel Kallner, Amit Halevi and Nissim Vaturi.

Polls closed in the Likud primary election after eleven hours of voting on Monday night, with 53.5 percent of the party’s roughly 140,000 members........

© The Times of Israel