Opinion Not only Likudniks deserve | Israel today

Soon crowds will vote in the Likud primaries ("the primaries") - a democratic celebration, compared to the appointed, unelected candidates in the dictatorial parties.

But as long as there are no regional elections that guarantee direct representatives to all citizens, the Likud primaries are limited in their democratic influence.

Only regional elections will eliminate the phenomenon of "the parties" which are nothing more than electoral corporations owned by dictators, and only regional elections will empower all citizens.

There are also disadvantages to primaries.

For example, giving an unfair advantage to the rich like Nir Barkat.

We want perceptions and skills to be advanced in representative politics, and not sources of funding, self or from any capitalists.

Another disadvantage apparently lies precisely in the openness of the primaries.

It is said that it may open a gate to negative factors, from the underworld for example.

But such corruption attempts can be seen in all types of democracies and in all methods of selecting candidates.

This is what happened with us, for example: within Mapai during the days of the "regulating committee" in the 1950s, in which there were no preliminary elections, and in which Mordechai Sarfati, a criminal leader in the southern neighborhoods of Tel Aviv who was known by the nickname "Mentesh" acted and influenced.

But these shortcomings, which can be mitigated, are dwarfed by the important civic empowerment of Likud members through the primary system.

In Israel, there has been a campaign for a long time to neutralize the power of the citizens in order to control the officials - the lawyers, the officers or the economists - over the management of the public's affairs through dictatorial parties and the neutralization of the Knesset and the government.

This is a domineering trend, to the point of tyrannical, and early elections like in Likud are an important tool to act against it.

It is true that this is conditional on the voters and their representatives recognizing the nature of the hegemonic threat.

But awareness of the threat began to develop even before the lawsuit filed against Netanyahu.

And the high public profile of his trial and what is revealed in it greatly increases awareness, of course.

It is to be hoped that the preliminary elections currently underway in Likud will bring to the Knesset members of the Knesset determined to bring about reforms in the law, in relations between the authorities and in the ability of the public to enforce its will on the civil service.

And yet, despite the virtues of the Likud primary elections, they are not enough to correct the acute crisis that has afflicted our representative politics.

First, primary elections empower citizens only in mass parties, and in Israel there is only one mass party - the Likud.

The rest are much smaller than her.

The primary elections in religious Zionism and the two pale shadows of left-wing Zionism, Labor and Meretz, may give influence to their members - but they are tiny compared to the Likud, so they only empower citizens to a small extent.

Second, the Likud itself is also too small.

It is relatively small, compared to the mass parties in Great Britain, for example, or in the United States, where it is customary to have a very broad popular registration for parties. On the other hand, Likud members are only a small part of those who have the right to vote for the Knesset. We can address both of these problems if we introduce a regional electoral system in Israel, For the empowerment of citizens.

Wherever it is led, it creates two very broad mass parties, which choose their candidates through popular primaries.

In Israel they were formed from the two blocs that had already formed here.

Alongside their candidates, who will be elected in almost all regions, a few independent Knesset members of a sectoral or unique nature, ultra-Orthodox or Arabs for example, will be able to be elected in significant concentrations.

But the mass parties will also be obliged to include representatives of those groups or sectors close to them (Orthodox and religious-nationalists on the right and Arabs on the left, for example) and take their wishes into account, because otherwise they will lose the elections.

That's why regional elections are an important tool for formation and connection between groups, compared to relative national elections that inevitably foster division.

Only regional elections will complete the process of democratization accomplished by the Likud.

Only they can stabilize and rescue us from the political crisis and return the power to the citizens.

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