.jpg "צילום: איי פי")
Couldn't be happier: Peres
צילום: איי פי
Peres: 'Labor not dead'
Acting Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres encouraged by membership drive, party reports 120,000 new members
TEL AVIV - Acting Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres said the party’s membership drive on Sunday proves the party is “not dead”.
Peres arrived at party headquarters in Tel Aviv’s Hatikva neighborhood in high spirits following a drive that added approximately 120,000 members to party roles.
Throughout the day, candidates for the party leadership handed in sign-up forms. Former Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer showed up accompanied by supporters carrying crates full of forms. Ben-Eliezer claimed to have signed up 36,000 members.
Elections planned
Peres rejected the suggestion that internal party elections would not be held as planned on June 28 to choose a permanent party leader. “I definitely want elections on June 28,” he said. “I don’t care about procedure, and I am against extending the campaign period. It wouldn’t serve the party,” he said.
Speaking about the large numbers of sign-ups registered Sunday, Peres said, “there is a feeling of change taking root amongst the nation. People are tired of the Likud, people are unemployed, university tuition is going up, social problems are rising.
“They said the Labor Party is dead, but it is simply not true.”
Senior party officials said they have hired two private firms, including a graphologist, to verify the legitimacy of the new sign-up forms in order to prevent cheating or false sign ups.
Must agree by Tuesday
The controversy continues between candidates for the party leadership regarding the appropriate time to hold internal party elections. Labor Party legal counsel Eldad Yaniv has prepared an opinion arguing that elections cannot be held because the party central committee did not authorize them at it’s last meeting.
At the end of the day, it was decided that the candidates for the party leadership must come to some agreement on the matter within 48 hours, or the party’s elections committee will decide for them.
The committee is set to meet on May 30 to approve the measure. Senior Party members predict the election will be postponed because there is not enough time to properly prepare.
