Kadima asks voters to vote 'yes'

Kadima's ballots will bear the letters 'Kaf' and 'nun', which spell the Hebrew word 'yes.'

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
kadima 298 88 ap (photo credit: AP [file])
kadima 298 88 ap
(photo credit: AP [file])
Kadima representatives Tzahi Hanegbi, Roni Bar-On, David Tal, Eitan Haberman and Avigdor Yitzhaki submitted the party's list of Knesset candidates to the central elections committee on Wednesday. The representatives requested that the party be referred to on ballots as "Kadima [forward] with Ehud Olmert for Prime Minister." The letters that will be printed on the Kadima ballots to represent the party will be kaf and nun, which spell the word "yes." They had considered requesting the letter kuf, the first letter of "Kadima," but decided against it because it used to represent the Communist Party. Kadima officials said they chose the letters because they wanted to attract support from Russian immigrants who had voted in the past for Yisrael Ba'aliya, which used the same letters. They said that the word "yes" would be featured prominently in their advertising campaign. The Kadima List features several mayors in honorary positions after the 100th slot, including Rishon Lezion Mayor Meir Nitzan, Tamar Regional Council head Dov Litvinoff, Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav and Ashdod Mayor Zvi Zilker. "Submitting a list that doesn't include [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon, who gave birth to Kadima, is sad," Hanegbi said. Kadima sent volunteers to wait in line in front of the Knesset since Sunday to ensure that the party would receive the letters it wanted, which were distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Several other parties also sent volunteers to stand in line all night in the Jerusalem cold. A fight nearly broke out in the middle of the night between Tuesday and Wednesday when volunteers from the Green Leaf Party left the line and volunteers from Tafnit took their place. Green Leaf officials said that they left for only a couple of minutes. Other people said that they left for hours. Green Leaf chairman Boaz Wachtel said, "We believe in non-violence so we didn't make an issue out of it." Asked whether the volunteers left in order to smoke, Wachtel said "it's a smokers' line. They didn't have to leave the line for that." Wachtel later asked the elections committee for kuf and nun, the first two letters in the Hebrew word for cannibus, which the party wants legalized. The people in line passed the time by talking politics, filling out Soduko puzzles and reading newspapers. A party official from Tafnit even brought a laptop computer and worked in queue. The former members of Shinui asked for the letters het and tsadi, which together spell "arrow" and stand for their new party's name, the Secular Zionist Party. The party will be led by MK Avraham Poraz and former Shinui head Yosef Lapid was given the 61st slot on the list. Eighteen parties submitted their requests on Wednesday and another dozen were expected on Thursday.