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| Turnout | 51.09% | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The2017The Jewish Homeleadership election was held on 27 April 2017[1] to elect the leader of The Jewish Home party. Incumbent leaderNaftali Bennett won a strong reelection over two challengers.
Bennett was first elected party leaderin 2012 and was reelectedin 2015.
In the2013 Israeli legislative election, Bennett led the party to its strongest showing, with twelve Knesset seats. However,in 2015 (after Bennett was reelected party leader), the party lost seats, falling to eight seats. Ahead of the 2017 leadership election, polls showed the party receiving ten seats in future elections.[1] The party was seen by many as underperforming compared to how it had originally been expected to perform under Bennett's leadership.[1]
At the time of the leadership election, the next legislative election was not expected to occur until 2019.[1] However, facing prospective leadership challenges, on 8 March 2017 Bennett scheduled for an early leadership election.[1] One speculated reason for holding the leadership election early was that it would give any opponents only about two months to field their campaigns.[1] Another speculated reason was that it could provide Benett a legal excuse to politically fundraise. Another speculated reason was that it would make a political statement that the party was anticipating that Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu would be ousted from power due tocriminal investigations, thereby necessitating an early Knesset election.[1][2]
Both of Bennett's challengers positioned themselves further to thepolitical right than Bennett. They were characterized byThe Times of Israel as "hard right".[1]
By the time of the vote, Bennett was widely expected to win reelection as leader.[1]
The party's 30,734 members were eligible to vote at 69 polling stations located across the nation.[1]
Turnout was low, which some attributed to the overwhelming expectation that Bennett was going to win.[3]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jewish Home | Naftali Bennett (incumbent) | 12,600 | 80.25 | |
| Jewish Home | Yonatan Branksi | 1,916 | 12.20 | |
| Jewish Home | Yitzhak Zagha | 1,074 | 6.84 | |
| Other | 111 | 0.71 | ||
| Total votes | 15,701 | 100 | ||
| Turnout | 51.09 | |||
Political party leadership elections in Israel  | |||||
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| Labor Party | |||||
| Likud | |||||
| Kadima | |||||
| Blue and White | |||||
| Yesh Atid | |||||
| Others |
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