Labor party official: Delay primaries
General-Secretary Eitan Cabel calls for two-month delay of party primaries following revelation that nearly 45 percent of new membership marred by forgery; Judge Frisch, who reviewed forms, says many Labor Party headquarter personnel acted like professional ‘recruiters’ in violation of law
Blizzard of forgeries: Labor Party General-Secretary and Knesset Member Eitan Cabel announced Thursday afternoon that he was calling for a two-month delay of the Labor primaries.
Two months is the time necessary to conduct an intensive review of the membership forms at the party’s headquarters – and given the high level of forgeries discovered by retired judge Sarah Frisch, there may not be a choice.
Thursday evening, Cabel told those present at the press conference that a committee examining 10,000 forms at the party’s headquarters, found that nearly 45 percent of them were invalid.
The Labor Party Central Committee will address the issue Sunday,
Cabel said he had hoped that stories about rampant forgeries and the mismanagement of the membership recruitment drive were not true, but “to his regret,” they turned out to be correct.
A view from the campaign trail
Responding to Cabel’s call to push off the primaries, the Ehud Barak election team said it welcomed the decision.
A staff member said, “We believe that one way or another we will root out this scam and put an end to this disgrace.”
A member of the rival Amir Peretz camp said, “One needs to deal with the voter recruiters, and the right way to do that is to install more election monitors to prevent those using fake IDs to vote.”
The staffer said that the primaries should not be delayed and that “the conspirators Ehud Barak and Eldar Yaniv, who tried to eliminate Peretz, should be dealt with.”
Housing Minister Yitzhak Herzog said, “I have complete faith in Cabel’s decision, that is extinguishing a large fire and allowing Labor to overcome a crisis with courage and determination.”
Peres also supports delay
Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres this morning joined the calls to push off the early primaries and announced that, on Sunday, he will call upon the Central Committee to decide on the election date.
Peres said that he supports a delay of two weeks to allow for review of the forms, but in Labor, they are those talking about a longer period of time.
Ehud Barak, who is expected to be the primary beneficiary of the delay, did not rule out that the primaries be conducted after disengagement.
However, some in Labor say that Barak is less interested in honest politics than in getting a chance to turn around his slumping opinion polls.
