CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - Likud party primaries got underway Monday morning, albeit with a delay in the nation's capital caused by a bulldozer that inadvertently severed fiber optic lines, disrupting phone service throughout the city.

Four-hundred polling stations in some 90 municipalities opened at 10:00 a.m. and will close this evening at 11:00 p.m.

A whopping 261 candidates are competing for the party's Knesset list.

Three candidates -- MK (member of Knesset ) Silvan Shalom, who served as foreign minister in the Sharon government, former IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Chief of Staff Lt.-General (ret.) Moshe Ya'alon and former science minister Bennie Begin -- are vying for the number two spot on the ticket.

Other familiar faces include former education minister MK Limor Livnat, former Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin, party faction chairman MK Gideon Sa'ar, former deputy chief of General Staff Uzi Dayan, and MKs Yuval Steinitz and Yuli Edelstein.