Instead of a central committee, party will be governed by founding council.
By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANelections06.article.298(photo credit: )
Kadima chairman Ehud Olmert revealed a new charter for the party in a faction meeting at the Knesset on Wednesday that is intended to prevent the party from facing the same internal struggles and rebellions that plagued the Likud.
The charter includes clauses that would ban MKs who violate party discipline from running again with the party. Instead of a central committee, the party will be governed by its founding council of 13 MKs and internal elections will be held in national primaries of Kadima members who have been in the party for 25 months.
"We wanted to prevent a repeat of what has happened over the last few years with rebels preventing a government's ability to function, Olmert told the faction.
"The days of manipulations and deal-making are over. There won't be a situation where someone joins the party for two weeks, votes in primaries, decides the makeup of the faction and then leaves. People will have to be members for a long time before they can have an impact." Convicts will not be able to seek elected office with the party.
Olmert said he had asked a respected leading figure - referring to Israel Prize winning professor Asa Kasher - to devise a new ethica code that will apply to Kadima and parties that join it in a coalition.
In case the party chairman is incapacitated, as happened with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the charter holds that a temporary leader would be appointed, who would not be permitted to run for the position of permanent party chairman.
A permanent chairman would be elected by party members within 60 days. "We hope these new measures will preserve our internal unity," Olmert said. "There will still be disputes and differences of opinion, but we will try to set in motion a process for overcoming them."
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