In the shadow of an unprecedented slump, the party will elect a new chairman • Merav Michaeli: "Returning and returning work to the center of the stage" • Gil Beilin: "I will offer Ehud Barak second place on the list"
Merav Michaeli
Photography:
Oren Ben Hakon
37,000 members of the Labor Party will be able to elect a new chairman today, hoping to try and escape the unprecedented political slump that the old party, led by Amir Peretz, has reached.
"One hundred polling stations will open at 11:00 at 70 sites around the country, where Labor functionaries can exercise their right and elect the chairman in place of Peretz, who has resigned. The polls will close at 19:00 and in the evening the results are expected to determine their identity." The new R..
Nine candidates will run for the party leadership, which does not pass the blocking percentage in the polls: Merav Michaeli, Avi Shaked, Yitzhak Time, Gil Beilin, David Landsman, Ofer Segman, Nava Fruchter Katz, Yehuda Alush and Eliezer Ofer Cohen.
Favorite: Michaeli
The candidate with the highest chances of winning the Labor leadership election is MK Merav Michaeli, who said ahead of the opening of the vote: "We are returning the Labor Party to the center of the stage and we must not give it up, neither the roots nor the ideology. "Do not be complacent, and let's bring the truth back to politics."
If Michaeli is elected, she will apparently act to join one or more parties in the left-wing bloc.
Beilin, who is also running for Labor, made it clear that he would work to bring Ehud Barak back to a key position: "When I choose, I will offer Ehud Barak a second reserved seat on the list. Together we will work for the great unification of center-left parties. Netanyahu. "
Eran Hermoni, the secretary general of Labor, said ahead of the primaries: "The Labor Party is a democratic party, the only one that holds primaries for the chairman and the list on such a scale ahead of the elections to the 24th Knesset."
"I believe that the energies generated as a result of this democratic process will then lead to a trend that will put the party on its feet. Many in the public have confidence in the values of the work and they love it, and these primaries will be the spark that will rekindle it."