Israel's Peretz ousted as Labour leader
Pastor Dale Morgan
Tuesday May 29, 11:24 AM
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Israel's Peretz ousted as Labour leader
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Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz has been ousted as Labour party
chief, leaving an ex-premier and a former general neck and neck in a key
primary which threatens Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's ruling coalition,
official results showed Tuesday.
Peretz came in a distant third in Monday's primary, with former prime
minister Ehud Barak and former domestic security chief Ami Ayalon
heading to a run-off ballot, according to a near-complete official count.
Based on a count of 99.7 percent of the vote, the electoral commission
said Barak had won 35.7 percent, Ayalon 30.7 percent and Peretz 22.3
percent.
A candidate needed to garner at least 40 percent of votes cast to avoid
a second-round ballot which would take place in two weeks.
Peretz -- whose ratings have dropped to single digits after a government
inquiry blasted him for failing in his duties during last year's Lebanon
war -- received between 17 and 19 percent, according to the polls.
Barak is hoping to stage a political comeback after a six-year absence,
while Ayalon is aiming to burst on to the national political stage
having never held senior political office.
Ayalon's legal advisors appealed to Labour's central election committee
to investigate alleged fraud in voting in the Arab sector, where Barak
enjoys broad support.
Barak and Ayalon have warned that they would pull Labour out of Olmert's
coalition cabinet unless the beleaguered premier steps down in the wake
of a biting report of his handling of the Lebanon war.
Ayalon has vowed to do so immediately and Barak has said he would serve
in Olmert's government as defence minister until early elections are held.
Should Labour and its 19 MPs quit the government, it would leave
Olmert's coalition with the support of just 59 MPs -- two short of a
majority in the 120-seat parliament.
This would leave the premier with three options -- to resign, to try to
form a new right-leaning coalition or to call new general elections.
Barak, Israel's most decorated soldier and a former chief of staff,
emphasised his security background in a last-minute appeal to voters,
and promised to heal a crisis of confidence in the nation's leadership
following the inconclusive 34-day war against Hezbollah last year.
"I tell voters two things: first, just think of who you want to have at
time of war, and second that only I can beat" main opposition leader and
former premier Benjamin Netanyahu in an election, Barak said as he voted
near his home outside Tel Aviv.
Ayalon has vowed to "reinforce security and combat terrorism,
corruption, put the peace process back on track and make education a
priority."
"I will unite the Labour party around me and together we will lead it to
power," he said as he cast his ballot several kilometres (miles) from
his home near the northern city of Haifa.
The two front-runners have sharply contrasting public images.
Ayalon is seen as untainted by graft and has a security background, but
he is also a political novice, never having held a ministerial
portfolio. He was elected to parliament for the first time only last year.
Barak has impeccable military experience and a long list of political
posts, but has not shaken off the tag of failure over the breakdown of
peace talks with the Palestinians at Camp David in 2000.