Meretz to decide whether MKs Gal-On and Vilan can run for next Knesset

According to party regulations, members who have served as MKs for over eight years must be approved by 60% percent of steering committee.

By SHELLY PAZ
Gal-On 224.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Gal-On 224.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Meretz's steering committee will decide on Sunday whether MKs Zehava Gal-On and Avshalom Vilan can run in the party's December 14 primary. Meretz's primary usually consists of two votes - one to determine which 20 party members will run for the Knesset and a second to the order in which they will appear on the candidates list. This time only the latter vote will be held, as just 22 members have registered to compete for spots on the list. In accordance with party regulations, members who have served as MKs for more than eight years such as Gal-On and Vilan must be approved by 60 percent of the steering committee members. As party chairman, MK Haim Oron does not need to be approved by the committee. Among those running in the primary are Shaul Eisenberg, former spokesman of the Israel Football Association and former chairman of the Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball team; Uri Zaki, chairman of the Meretz Young Guard and former media adviser to Yossi Beilin; Abed el-Salaam Hassan, an accountant, businessman and member of Meretz's management board; and former MK Mossy Raz, a former general-secretary of Peace Now (1994-2000) and current chairman of Meretz's management board. The Labor Party will hold its primary on Tuesday, with 43 members old and new competing for slots on the party's candidates list. Except for Labor's chairman Ehud Barak and secretary-general MK Eitan Cabel, there are no reserved spots on the list. Labor will be the first party to conduct its primary electronically, with voters allowed to vote for a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 8 candidates, up from 7 following the cancellation of National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer's reserved slot. Among the new Labor candidates are ex-Haaretz journalist Daniel Ben-Simon; Peace Now general-secretary Yariv Oppenheimer; and Hebrew University law professor Shimon Shetreet, who held three ministerial portfolios between 1992 and 1996.