Labor wary of double voting in primary

Party concerned members from Kassam-hit towns will abuse special voting rights.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
labor candidates 88 (photo credit: )
labor candidates 88
(photo credit: )
The Labor Party will take extra precautions to ensure that 3,236 Labor members from Sderot and surrounding areas will not vote twice in Monday's primary, the head of Labor's central elections committee, retired judge Amnon Straschnov, said Thursday in a press conference at Labor headquarters. Straschnov decided this week to allow 1,491 members from Sderot and 1,745 members from surrounding communities to vote in double-envelopes, as diplomats do when they cast their votes abroad, in cities across the country. The move was taken to help voters who might have temporarily moved away because of the Kassam attacks from Gaza. They can also vote in three polling stations in Sderot that have been fortified against Kassam rockets. "Every double envelope is problematic, because people could vote in Sderot and then vote again," Straschnov said. "We will, of course, check for this. We see it as an obligation to allow the Sderot people the right to vote." Labor's 103,498 members will be eligible to vote in 313 polling stations in 243 localities. Polls will open at 8:30 a.m. and close at 9 p.m. with results not expected until 2 a.m. Only then will it be clear whether a candidate received the 40 percent of the vote necessary to avoid a June 11 run-off race between the top two finishers. The first round of the election will cost Labor nearly NIS 1 million. Avoiding a second round could save the party NIS 500,000. Straschnov said the campaign has passed without major problems or complaints thus far and he was confident that there would not be incidents of forgeries or stolen ballots that had plagued recent Labor primaries. "Until now, the election has been held in a proper, organized and clean manner," Straschnov said. "For the most part, the candidates have handled themselves fairly and cleanly. You can decide for yourselves whether [that means] the election was boring."