A primary election was held by The Democrats on 20 July 2026 to select its list of candidates ahead of the 2026 Israeli legislative election.

Background The Israeli Labor Party won 4 seats out of 120 in the 2022 Israeli legislative election, while Meretz failed to pass the electoral threshold for the first time in its history. Merav Michaeli resigned from the Labor Party leadership, with Yair Golan, a retired general and former Meretz MK, elected in May 2024 to succeed her. Golan's party leadership platform included establishing a new political framework that would unite Labor, Meretz, and other organizations on the political left, to be called The Democrats. Golan, whose candidacy for leader was supported by incumbent MKs Naama Lazimi and Gilad Kariv, won the leadership election with 95% of the vote, and signed a political unification agreement (without a full merger) between Meretz and Labor, which included a commitment to reserve a share of the seats for former Meretz members in the unified party's list. The agreement was signed on 30 June 2024 and the merger was approved by the parties in July the same year.

Every member of the party who joined at least one week before the primary was eligible to vote; the number of eligible voters was 112,638.

Electoral system The electoral system was based on that used for the last Israeli Labor Party Knesset primary in 2022. A multiple non-transferable vote system was used, with each voter having 6 to 8 votes, with the candidates having the most votes being placed higher in the list, subject to a zipper rule between men and women and quotas of reserved places.

Places 6, 8, and 14 were reserved for Meretz candidates, while places 12, 13, 18, 23, and 27 were reserved for rural (Kibbutz and Moshav residents) and minority (Arab and Druze) candidates. Though there was one rural reservation and four minority reservations, these were to be assigned together based on the number of votes; Meretz's reservations were assigned separately. In addition, the party leader has the right to appoint two candidates in every ten places, but not to the detriment of Meretz's reservations. The party's administration could change the positioning of up to two candidates, including those elected for the reserved quota, at the proposal of the party leader, for reasons of "the good of the Party, its electoral success, or if the candidate is found to undermine the Party's principles", subject to a hearing. Golan did not exercise his right to reserve candidates.

Candidates 51 candidates were registered, excluding candidates who announced their intention to run but withdrew from official registration.

Prominent persons who announced their intention to run but withdrew include Ami Dror and Ronen Tzur.

Results Incumbent MKs Naama Lazimi, Gilad Kariv, and Efrat Rayten were placed at the top of the list (immediately after Golan, who became lead candidate automatically as party leader), with 87,774, 83,084, and 73,915 votes respectively. Turnout stood at 86%, with nearly 97,000 members out of the party's approximately 113,000 casting their vote.

+ Results of party list primary Candidate Votes Eligible reservations Pos. Notes Meretz Rural Minority Yair Golan colspan=5 1st Position as party leader Naama Lazimi (incumbent) 87,774 90.28 2nd Gilad Kariv (incumbent) 83,084 85.46 3rd Efrat Rayten (incumbent) 73,915 76.03 4th Yaya Fink 66,915 68.12 5th Gaby Lasky 35,493 36.51 6th Position elevated to ensure Meretz's seat reservation Omri Ronen 43,246 44.48 7th Position lowered due to Meretz's reserved seats Michal Rozin 23,345 24.01 8th Position elevated to ensure Meretz's seat reservation Moshe Radman 39,583 40.71 9th Position lowered due to Meretz's reserved seats Somaya Bashir 18,848 19.39 10th Position elevated per gender balancing rules Nimrod Sheffer 37,355 38.42 11th Position lowered due to reserved seats and gender balancing rules Moran Zer Katzenstein 17,005 17.49 12th Position elevated per gender balancing rules; the reservation of the 12th seat to a minority or rural candidate was relinquished as an eligible candidate (Somaya Bashir) received enough votes to be elected to a higher position on the list Avi Dabush 17,772 18.28 13th The reservation of the 13th seat to a minority or rural candidate was relinquished as an eligible candidate (Avi Dabush) received enough votes to be elected to that position on the list without it Emilie Moatti 14,174 14.58 14th The reservation of the 14th seat to a Meretz candidate was relinquished as an eligible candidate (Avi Dabush) received enough votes to be elected to a higher position on the list Tomer Avital 16,193 17.40 15th Position lowered due to gender balancing rules Nava Rozolyo 12,232 12.58 16th Position elevated per gender balancing rules Ram Shefa 15,596 16.04 17th Position lowered due to reserved seats and gender balancing rules Ali Salalha 13,174 13.55 18th Position elevated to ensure minority seat reservation Rotem Sivan 11,120 11.44 19th Position elevated per gender balancing rules Eran Etzion 15,473 15.91 20th Position lowered due to gender balancing rules Moran Michel 8,245 8.48 21st Position elevated per gender balancing rules Naor Narkis 15,345 15.78 22nd Position lowered due to gender balancing rules Nidal Masalha 8,053 8.28 23rd Position elevated to ensure minority seat reservation Katy Piasecki-Morag 8,084 8.31 24th Position elevated per gender balancing rules Mossi Raz 14,413 14.82 25th Position lowered due to gender balancing rules Mehereta Baruch-Ron 5,884 6.05 26th Position elevated per gender balancing rules Ghaleb Salamaneh 4,884 5.02 27th Position elevated to ensure minority seat reservation Inbar Bezek 4,311 4.43 28th Position elevated per gender balancing rules Yariv Oppenheimer 11,115 11.43 29th Position lowered due to gender balancing rules Chen Arieli 3,934 3.91 30th Danny Elgarat 9,432 9.70 31st Position lowered due to gender balancing rules Yael Cohen Paran 3,790 3.90 32nd Position elevated per gender balancing rules Amir Khnifess 3,979 4.05 33rd Position lowered due to gender balancing rules Hadas Regolsky 2,950 3.03 34th Ihab Shalyan 2,653 2.73 35th Inbal Wertman Shoham 2,273 2.34 36th Position elevated per gender balancing rules Ahsan Halaila 2,566 2.64 37th Position lowered due to gender balancing rules Lee Hoffman-Agiv 2,066 2.13 38th Position elevated per gender balancing rules Ayid Badir 2,542 2.61 39th Position lowered due to gender balancing rules Alice Goldman 1,153 1.19 40th Position elevated per gender balancing rules Itay Leshem 2,316 2.38 41st Position lowered due to gender balancing rules Gil Beilin 1,421 1.46 42nd Eran Nissan 1,364 1.40 43rd Malik Badir 1,063 1.09 44th Yair Rubinstein 776 0.80 45th Dima Shapira 596 0.61 46th Evyatar Be'er 365 0.38 47th Binaymin Daniel Minich 330 0.34 48th Yaron Niv 236 0.24 49th Yoav Agami 173 0.18 50th Avishay Liechtenstein 149 0.15 51st Olivier Emmanuel De Lame 145 0.15 52nd

Aftermath Naor Narkis, Nidal Masalha, Inbar Bezek, Yariv Oppenheimer, Danny Elgarat, Ihab Shalyan, Ahsan Halaila, Itay Leshem, Malik Badir, and Dima Shapira, withdrew their candidacies between the primary and the submission of lists to the Central Electoral Commission, and therefore do not appear on the final nominated list. In addition, the final list also contains lijstduwers who did not run in the primaries, making up a full contingent of 120 candidates. In addition, only Gaby Lasky was formally nominated as a Meretz candidate, with the rest of the candidates, even those who are eligible for Meretz's reserved spots, being nominated as Democratic candidates.https://www.gov.il/he/pages/hademokratim_list17

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