MKs Peres, Itzik, Ramon can run on Kadima list

By DAN IZENBERG
MKs Shimon Peres, Dalia Itzik and Haim Ramon will be allowed to run for the Knesset on the Kadima ticket, Central Elections Committee Chairwoman Dorit Beinish decided on Tuesday. Last week, the Labor Party submitted petitions maintaining that the three had not resigned from the Knesset immediately after announcing that they had quit the Labor faction and had then been given high places on the list of Kadima candidates for the 17th Knesset. Therefore, they ought to be considered as MKs who quit their faction in return for rewards from another existing Knesset faction. Under these circumstances, the law prohibited them from running on the ticket of any existing faction in the next election. But Beinish ruled that it was up to the Knesset House Committee, not the Central Elections Committee, to determine the status of the three MKs. Furthermore, the law did not have the same force in the twilight days of a Knesset as it did in the middle of the Knesset's term in office.