12% of Labor's new members disqualified

Some 12% of the 70,000 people who attempted to register as Labor voters recently were disqualified, this according to the party registry, which closed on Thursday.

Nearly half – 4,200 of the 9,880 invalid enrollees - were already registered with other parties. 

The disqualified voters were informed of the rejection and given the chance to appeal. The final voter registry is expected to be released by the end of the month.

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MK Amir Peretz's headquarters announced upon the closing of the party census last month that it has managed to sign up more than 23,000 new supporters. MKs Shelly Yachimovich's and Isaac Herzog's headquarters said they signed up 16,000 and 17,000 new members respectively, while Amram Mitzna and Arel Margalit reported to have gathered a few thousand supporters each. All five are vying for the party's leadership.

Following the census, concerns were raised that some voters were registered both in Labor and in Kadima, and that the numbers were off in Arab towns. There was also a suspicion that voter credit card information was leaked to one of the candidates.

A Yedioth Ahronoth investigation showed that in the town of Netivot 527 voters registered as Labor voters, while only 197 local residents voted for the party in the last elections. The inquiry found that many of those who signed up have the same phone numbers. Others were not aware that they registered at all. Many of the enrollees were ultra-Orthodox.

Peretz's pollsters said in response that his supporters "constitute a mosaic of Israeli society" and that he has managed to gain support from those who voted Shas and Likud in the past.

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