Former MK and IDF Spokesman Nachman Shai announced on Friday that he will be a candidate in Labor primary election set to take place on Monday.
"Israel is beaten, crumbling apart and torn," he wrote on social media. "I will join [Labor leader] Merav [Michaeli] and the whole list to re-hoist our banners - the social one, the economical one, and the diplomatic one."
Shai, who served in the 18th, 19th and 20th Knessets, is one of 36 candidates who paid the NIS 5000 fee in order to run. Michaeli extended the deadline to join the race to Saturday night at 8pm, in hopes of drafting a plum candidate.
Other candidates currently running include Blue and White MK Ram Shefa, journalist Haim Har Zahav and strategist Emilie Moatti, Israeli Reform Movement head Rabbi Gilad Kariv and Efrat councilwoman Nava Fruchter Katz.
Labor has been getting four or five seats in the polls since Michaeli was elected last Sunday.
Michaeli will have to decide whether to run together with another party by Thursday's deadline for lists to be submitted to the Central Elections Committee.