Likud sets sights on younger voters

Likud is planning a major effort to target younger voters based upon the theory that they tend to be more conservative than their elders.

The effort will kick off on Saturday night when Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu will visit one of Tel Aviv's trendiest night clubs along with the 10 members of the party's young guard who are high enough on its Knesset slate to have a realistic chance of being elected. It will be followed by a public relations campaign and other high-profile events.

All public opinion polls and focus groups conducted in recent years have found that younger voters tend to constitute a protest vote. Sometimes they express their protest by not voting at all and other times by voting for niche parties that are considered unlikely to enter the Knesset.

This protest vote was widely credited with the Pensioners' surprise success in the last election as the party ended up winning seven seats, even though pre-election polls had consistently shown it failing to cross the electoral threshold.

University student union leaders recently set up a self-declared youth party, called Sabra, in the hope of repeating the Pensioners' success. Thus Likud felt pressed to quickly launch its own youth campaign before the new party has gained much exposure.

To head the youth campaign, Netanyahu tapped MK Gilad Erdan, 38, who is ranked third on the party's Knesset slate.

At a Likud faction meeting in Ashkelon last week, Netanyahu listed four population segments whose votes he believes will decide the outcome of the upcoming election: immigrants, young voters, women and religious Zionists.

However, the fact that the party primary resulted in 10 young people - the equivalent of a medium-sized Knesset faction - placing high enough to have a good chance to enter the next Knesset means the party is particularly well positioned to go after the young vote, Erdan noted.

"With this [numerical] strength, it is possible to lead a young people's revolution in the Knesset, and to do so from within the government," he said.

Erdan and his colleagues have formulated a special youth platform for the party, which will be unveiled at Saturday night's event.

One of its key planks is a pledge that the government will fully finance the first year of university tuition for anyone who did either army service or civilian national service.

That plank is expected to cost some NIS 400 million per year.

Another proposal is for the government to legalize public transportation to places of entertainment on Shabbat - a pledge that has outraged the ultra-Orthodox parties, which Netanyahu might need as coalition partners.

In previous elections, all of the major parties have used their youth wings primarily as a source of workers to hand out fliers or attend rallies.

This time, however, Likud is viewing its young guard as a potential drawing card for young voters.

Kadima is also giving more attention to young voters than in the past and has appointed MK Yohanan Plesner, 36, to head its youth campaign.