Yesterday\'s Labor Party elections seem to be going the route paved ten months ago by the American presidential election: a photo-finish, accusations of duplicity, and probably a court decision. The official results of yesterday\'s Labor Party election show Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg leading Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer by 1%, but the latter\'s camp claims that many results, particularly in the Druze sector, were contrived.
In a press conference this afternoon, Ben-Eliezer called upon Burg to agree to the formation of a committee, headed by a retired judge, that would investigate the voting and ballot counting procedures. \"I promise, Avraham, to abide by whatever conclusions the committee reaches,\" Ben-Eliezer said. He repeatedly accused the Burg camp of \"stealing\" votes, and of delaying the entry of observers into several of the polling stations. In the Druze town of Hurfeish, for instance, it was reported that the total number of votes was higher than the number of registered voters, with 80% of them going to Burg. When the \"mistake\" was pointed out, a \"corrected\" count arrived at Labor\'s election headquarters - with exactly the same amount of votes as registered voters. Fourteen complaints were filed against irregularities in the Druze and other sectors; by mid-afternoon, the results of seven of the problematic polling stations had been approved by the Labor Party elections committee. He called the election results a \"scandal among the worst in Israel\'s political history.\"
Burg and the party\'s secretary-general, Ra\'anan Cohen, rejected Ben-Eliezer\'s call for an outside investigative committee. Both camps have already hired top-name lawyers for the expected legal clash: Atty. Ram Caspi for Ben-Eliezer, and former Justice and Finance Minister Atty. Yaakov Ne\'eman for Burg.
Former Labor MK Haggai Merom, writing a piece entitled \"Labor in Trouble\" for Ynet today, comments,
\"The results of the elections will lead to lawsuits, bad blood, mutual recriminations… It ended badly because it began badly. A party whose leaders were scared to run for the top spot, yet are stricken with bouts of jealousy at the two contenders, is essentially de-legitimizing whoever wins - and this is before the Likud even starts to open its mouth…
\"If Ben-Eliezer is declared the winner, the Beilin-Burg-Tamir group, with the backing of [other groups such as Peace Now], will begin forming a liberal-socialist alternative party… If Burg wins, the centrist stream in the party, backed by Barak, Ben-Ami, and Ben-Eliezer, will begin casting doubts as to Burg\'s future candidacy for Prime Minister, and Burg will have to wage street fights in every corner within the party… All the more so, now that there is a stand-off…
\"Whoever hoped that the [election] would be the harbinger of a new way for the party, should note that the wheelings-and-dealings that will now begin have destructive potential for the Labor Party, and only a miracle can stop them…\"
In a press conference this afternoon, Ben-Eliezer called upon Burg to agree to the formation of a committee, headed by a retired judge, that would investigate the voting and ballot counting procedures. \"I promise, Avraham, to abide by whatever conclusions the committee reaches,\" Ben-Eliezer said. He repeatedly accused the Burg camp of \"stealing\" votes, and of delaying the entry of observers into several of the polling stations. In the Druze town of Hurfeish, for instance, it was reported that the total number of votes was higher than the number of registered voters, with 80% of them going to Burg. When the \"mistake\" was pointed out, a \"corrected\" count arrived at Labor\'s election headquarters - with exactly the same amount of votes as registered voters. Fourteen complaints were filed against irregularities in the Druze and other sectors; by mid-afternoon, the results of seven of the problematic polling stations had been approved by the Labor Party elections committee. He called the election results a \"scandal among the worst in Israel\'s political history.\"
Burg and the party\'s secretary-general, Ra\'anan Cohen, rejected Ben-Eliezer\'s call for an outside investigative committee. Both camps have already hired top-name lawyers for the expected legal clash: Atty. Ram Caspi for Ben-Eliezer, and former Justice and Finance Minister Atty. Yaakov Ne\'eman for Burg.
Former Labor MK Haggai Merom, writing a piece entitled \"Labor in Trouble\" for Ynet today, comments,
\"The results of the elections will lead to lawsuits, bad blood, mutual recriminations… It ended badly because it began badly. A party whose leaders were scared to run for the top spot, yet are stricken with bouts of jealousy at the two contenders, is essentially de-legitimizing whoever wins - and this is before the Likud even starts to open its mouth…
\"If Ben-Eliezer is declared the winner, the Beilin-Burg-Tamir group, with the backing of [other groups such as Peace Now], will begin forming a liberal-socialist alternative party… If Burg wins, the centrist stream in the party, backed by Barak, Ben-Ami, and Ben-Eliezer, will begin casting doubts as to Burg\'s future candidacy for Prime Minister, and Burg will have to wage street fights in every corner within the party… All the more so, now that there is a stand-off…
\"Whoever hoped that the [election] would be the harbinger of a new way for the party, should note that the wheelings-and-dealings that will now begin have destructive potential for the Labor Party, and only a miracle can stop them…\"