Knesset Member Tzipi Hotovely has been put back into a higher spot on the Likud candidate list, making it more likely she will be re-elected following a recount of the votes in the Likud primary elections last week.
Another recount is probable since Hotovely now has a lead of only 11-19 votes over former MK and minister Avi Dichter, who according to the first recount beat Hotovely by 55 votes for the 20th place on the party list.
The next five places on the list are reserved for sectors, regardless of the voting results, meaning that Dichter now is the 26th place.
Likud primary elections almost always never pass without questionable practices and mishaps. This time around, it simply may be that someone doesn’t know how to count, and if that is the case, woe to Israel if the same person becomes the Finance Minister.
The new recount is good news for the Likud because Hotovely is very popular among national religious voters, while Dichter is identified with the classic Likud wheelers and dealers whose ideology blows with the wind and the smell of power.
The entire Hotovely-Dichter see-saw may be superfluous because Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu still has the privilege of choosing one of them as his own preference for the 23rd place on the party list.
However, the way the polls are going, even Hotovely, in the 20th place, cannot be sure of a seat.
Three polls by different Israeli television channels give the Likud between 20 and 25 seats in the Knesset elections, to be held March 17.
If Hotovely holds on to her slim lead, she might be able to attract more voters, all at the expense of the Jewish Home.