The Likud Central Committee voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday evening to approve Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal that the selection of the party's Knesset slate be carried out by the rank-and-file.
Just prior to the vote, held at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds, Netanyahu said a yes-vote would bring back Likud voters who jumped ship for other parties.
"The vote is good for the Likud and good for all the parties. It will lead to a more open, bigger and more democratic Likud," Netanyahu said. "I know many of you were undecided but I am convinced that you will demonstrate responsibility this evening and do the right thing for the Likud, for democracy and for the State of Israel."
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Netanyahu also said he believed the party had reached a turning point.
Addressing former party supporters the Likud leader said, "I call on you to return home. The Likud is being renewed, is opening its doors and returning to be the most democratic, open and clean of all parties in Israel. It is once again the movement that you loved."
Likud MK Yuval Steinitz said before the vote that most Central Committee members believe Netanyahu's proposal was to be approved.
The Likud's supreme court ruled earlier Wednesday against all petitions to ban the conference, and in favor of the party's decision to hold an open vote to change its method of selecting Knesset members.
A group of Central Committee members had petitioned the court requesting it order a preventative injunction against holding the meeting. They argued that because the meeting was announced only 48 hours in advance, many members would find it difficult to attend.
The petitioners had asked the court to rule that convening the Central Committee requires notice of at least two weeks.
"We wanted a secret ballot, and now that it will be an open vote, it will be difficult for people to vote. This is not democratic and people won't want to take part in this. Only a few will be able to attend," Committee member Uzi Cohen told Haaretz.
Cohen added that in a secret vote, he would have expected 70 percent of Central Committee members to vote against the recommendation.
Netanyahu on Tuesday accused senior Kadima members of attempting to influence Likud Central Committee members to torpedo his proposal.
In closed talks with Central Committee members ahead of Wednesday's vote on the proposal, Netanyahu said Kadima was "running an organized campaign" against the move, "including getting senior ministers involved in it."
Netanyahu met over the past few days with hundreds of central committee members to try to ensure their support. He told Haaretz on Tuesday the move was "for the good of the country and the movement; it's essential."
Senior Likud activists said there was still a small group of Central Committee members working with Kadima but who had not given up their Likud membership.
In one of Netanyahu's attempts to motivate activists to side with the proposal, he told them, "I hear from central committee members that they are getting phone calls from Kadima, including from senior ministers, calling for them to vote against the proposal," he said.
"I told them as I am telling you, that I can give them endless explanations why this is important from a democratic point of view, and that it will strengthen the Likud," he said. "And then I added that the strongest argument was what they were doing in Kadima. I told them, 'Look who is trying to torpedo this. It's the people in Kadima. So you tell me, is this good for the Likud or bad for the Likud?'"
The senior Likud activists said the ministers to whom Netanyahu referred were Tzachi Hanegbi, Ze'ev Boim and Roni Bar-On.
Netanyahu told Haaretz he was encouraged that all the Likud MKs and former ministers had come around, and he was especially heartened by the expression of support at a rally Tuesday in Ashdod by Silvan Shalom, who had initially objected to the timing of the move
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