Netanyahu Expects Easy Victory in Primary Likud Vote

Members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party cast their ballots Tuesday in a primary the premier is tipped to win easily, beating his sole rival, the hardline settler Moshe Feiglin.

Netanyahu and his wife Sarah were first in line to cast their ballots in Jerusalem as polls opened for the vote, which the premier moved forward in December.

The surprise decision sparked speculation about whether he would also bring forward general elections, currently scheduled for around November 2013.

Netanyahu said the move was a way to save money, saying holding the primary on the same day as the party's convention would save millions of Israeli shekels.

But commentators characterized it as an attempt to capitalize on his domestic popularity, with polls placing him far ahead of Feiglin as well as future competitors for the prime minister's office.

His Likud party also remains well ahead of the opposition, according to recent polls.

Some 125,000 people who have been registered as Likud members for more than 16 months are eligible to cast a vote at one of 150 stations across the country, including in the West Bank, where Feiglin cast his ballot.

Voting started at 0800 GMT and with polls open until 2000 GMT, first results are not expected until around 2200 GMT.

In Jerusalem, home to Likud's biggest branch and a Feiglin stronghold, rival tents set up outside a polling station blared music intended to entice voters. Feiglin's tent attracted the largest crowd, most of them religious Jews.

But by 1530 GMT, as the sun set, turnout was low, with local media reporting that just 14 percent of eligible voters had cast ballots so far.

With Netanyahu expected to score upwards of 75 percent of the vote, as he did during Likud's last primaries in August 2007, the winner of the contest was not thought to be in question.

But low turnout could favor Feiglin, whose supporters are expected to vote en masse, even as Netanyahu's boosters warned against complacency among the premier's backers.

A religious Jew who lives with his wife and five children in the West Bank settlement of Karnei Shomron, Feiglin is known for his hardline positions, particularly on the Palestinians and Israel's Arab minority.

He opposed the Oslo peace accords and has said that Palestinians and Arab Israelis should be paid to move to Arab countries.

In 2007, he won around 25 percent of the primary vote, and now hopes to capitalize on settlers' anger at Netanyahu over his plan to comply with a High Court ruling ordering the relocation of a West Bank settlement outpost.

Feiglin has also sought to encourage activists who do not vote for Likud in general elections to become party members in order to influence the primaries, according to political commentator Hannan Crystal.

"Thousands of settlers who don't vote for Likud in the legislative elections, choosing instead groups that are more to the right, have registered with Likud so as to influence the party line," Crystal told Agence France Presse.

"They represent about nine percent of its members. But their strength is greater than that because they form a bloc that will vote massively against other members of Likud," he added.

Crystal said a strong showing for Feiglin could push Likud to the right because its members would fear angering his voting bloc as the party puts together its list of candidates for the general election.