Three Days Before Likud Primaries: MK Tsaga Melaku Withdraws from Race

MK Tsaga Melaku announced her withdrawal from the Likud primaries, three days before the vote, after not receiving a reserved slot and being blocked from running in the immigrants' slot. She joins a series of MKs and ministers who have withdrawn or announced they will not run. The primaries will be held on Monday.

Member of Knesset Tsaga Melaku announced today (Friday) her withdrawal from the Likud primaries, three days before the polls open. Melaku, who was reserved in the previous elections in the 37th spot on the list and entered the Knesset under the Norwegian Law, decided to withdraw after not receiving another reserved slot and after being blocked from running in the immigrants' slot. The Likud court accepted a petition against her candidacy in the immigrants' slot, as the party constitution allows only immigrants from 1993 onward to run in it, while Melaku immigrated in the 1980s. In a letter to Judge Menachem Na'aman, chairman of the elections committee, Melaku wrote about her withdrawal. She said that under the circumstances, she has no realistic chance of being elected, and that the immigrants' slot is blocked. Just two days earlier, she said in an interview to the Knesset Channel that she intended to run on the national list, estimating she would need about 20,000 votes out of about 140,000 eligible voters. Melaku is the third MK to withdraw from the primaries, after Eliyahu Revivo and Moshe Psal. The withdrawals join the decisions of Yuli Edelstein, Dan Illouz, and Galit Distel Atbaryan not to run. According to ynet, Likud officials sounded out MK Pnina Tamano-Shata, who clarified that she remains alongside Benny Gantz.