Herzog rivals ask for secret ballot vote

MKs Shelly Yacimovich, Omer Bar-Lev, and Erel Margalit wrote that a secret-ballot vote was required for a fair competition at Sunday's Labor convention.

By GIL HOFFMAN
Updated: JULY 26, 2016 23:39
Isaac Herzog (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Isaac Herzog
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Three Labor MKs asked the party’s Court of Appeals on Monday to require next Sunday’s vote on the date for the Labor leadership race to be held by secret ballot.
MKs Shelly Yacimovich, Omer Bar-Lev, and Erel Margalit wrote that a vote by secret ballot was required for a fair competition at Sunday’s Labor convention between Labor leador Isaac Herzog’s proposal to hold the primary in July 2017 and theirs to hold it on December 27, 2016. In the letter, which was written on their behalf by veteran political attorney Eitan Haverman, the MKs wrote that Labor’s constitution requires a secret-ballot vote for issues related to individuals.
“I have always thought that secret ballot votes were the more democratic way to make decisions,” Bar-Lev said. “This is a test for Labor that will determine whether it remains a democratic party.”
Yacimovich warned that if the vote is not conducted by secret ballot, there would be too much pressure on the Labor activists who are eligible to vote and their right to determine Labor’s next leader would in effect be taken away.
“Netanyahu’s corruption does not wait for primaries,” Margalit said. “We have to be ready at any moment for Netanyahu to fall due to the investigations, initiating an election, in which we must provide an alternative.”
Herzog’s associates said they would not respond, because he does not run the Labor convention. The case is expected to be decided by the Court of Appeals by the end of the week.
The election for Labor leader was supposed to be held by May 2016, according to Labor’s constitution.
But Herzog succeeded in getting the race postponed once and is trying to extend it further.
Yacimovich, who rarely attends meetings of the Labor faction, defiantly entered the room Monday while Herzog was addressing the faction.