If Omri is forced to vacate his seat, Ariel Sharon’s new party, Kadima, might fall short of the minimum number of mandates required to attain government funding for its upcoming election campaign.
Grounds for Omri’s ouster could be raised in a Knesset committee that deals with ethical issues. Omri was convicted last week of violating the campaign finance law, and of lying under oath, in a plea bargain arrangement.
The initiative to expel the younger Sharon from the Knesset is expected, however, to run into difficulty in the relevant committee (the Committee of the Knesset). That committee is chaired by MK Roni Bar-on, a Sharon loyalist who has already joined the prime minister’s new party.
The possibility of Omri vacating his seat also raises the issue of his successor. By law, the next person on the Likud’s 2000 electoral list would fill Omri’s seat. That person is Pnina Rosenblum, a former model who put her name on a successful line of women’s make-up.
Rosenblum’s loyalty to the Likud is unclear, and if she decides to run on Sharon’s new list, the entire maneuver could be foiled.
Despite uncertainty over Rosenblum, the possibility of denying Sharon’s new party government campaign funding, worth millions of shekels, might be worth the gambit.
Under Israeli law, Sharon’s party needs to carry a third of the mother party’s MKs, in this case, 14 MKs from the Likud, in order to be eligible for funding.
If Omri succeeds in retaining his Knesset seat, he may be barred from running on his father’s new Knesset list, if a court determines that he committed crimes involving moral turpitude. A judge is expected to rule on that issue before the next elections.
Grounds for Omri’s ouster could be raised in a Knesset committee that deals with ethical issues. Omri was convicted last week of violating the campaign finance law, and of lying under oath, in a plea bargain arrangement.
The initiative to expel the younger Sharon from the Knesset is expected, however, to run into difficulty in the relevant committee (the Committee of the Knesset). That committee is chaired by MK Roni Bar-on, a Sharon loyalist who has already joined the prime minister’s new party.
The possibility of Omri vacating his seat also raises the issue of his successor. By law, the next person on the Likud’s 2000 electoral list would fill Omri’s seat. That person is Pnina Rosenblum, a former model who put her name on a successful line of women’s make-up.
Rosenblum’s loyalty to the Likud is unclear, and if she decides to run on Sharon’s new list, the entire maneuver could be foiled.
Despite uncertainty over Rosenblum, the possibility of denying Sharon’s new party government campaign funding, worth millions of shekels, might be worth the gambit.
Under Israeli law, Sharon’s party needs to carry a third of the mother party’s MKs, in this case, 14 MKs from the Likud, in order to be eligible for funding.
If Omri succeeds in retaining his Knesset seat, he may be barred from running on his father’s new Knesset list, if a court determines that he committed crimes involving moral turpitude. A judge is expected to rule on that issue before the next elections.