Kadima will have a selection committee determine its list for the next Knesset
instead of holding a primary, sources within the party said on
Monday.
The party’s list was chosen by committee in 2006, but Kadima
members voted in a primary in 2009.
Kadima faction chairwoman Dalia Itzik
is leading the calls for party leader Shaul Mofaz to appoint a selection
committee that will decide who will follow him on the list for the
Knesset.
Of Kadima’s 28 MKs, only 10 are expected to make it into the
next Knesset, according to recent polls.
By appointing a committee,
Kadima could avoid a heated and expensive battle for its top seats, and Mofaz
would not have to give seats he promised to activists that helped him get voted
in as party chairman early this year.
Mofaz’s spokesman said talk of a
committee is speculative, but other sources in Kadima said an official
announcement is expected to come this week.
“I won’t say [a committee] is
happening, because no final decision is made, but Kadima has very little time to
prepare for the election,” which is set for September 4, MK Ronit Tirosh
(Kadima) explained.
Holding a primary would mean that MKs would spend the
next month and a half focusing on themselves and not the party, Tirosh told the
Knesset Channel, adding that she also asked Mofaz to appoint a
committee.
Also on Monday, Yuval Tzelner was sworn in as a new Kadima MK,
replacing former party leader Tzipi Livni.
Tzelner will be considered a
MK until a new Knesset is sworn in two weeks after elections, and as such will
receive a legislator’s salary and benefits until September.
The new MK,
who served as former prime minister Ariel Sharon’s chief of staff, said after
being sworn in that Kadima, under Mofaz’s leadership, is the only party that can
lead the state.
“I am not sorry that I am entering the Knesset at this
time. The election is more important than staying in the Knesset,” Tzelner
added.
|