Two months after Labor Party members went to the polls to select a new chairman, results of the vote remain in doubt. Yesterday Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg surprised supporters by suggesting annulling the September ballot and holding new elections within a year. Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer also reversed his opinion, and called for a new vote only in disputed polling stations.

The Labor Party's Law Committee will rule by Friday whether to recommend either Burg or Ben-Eliezer's proposal to the party's Central Committee, which will make a final decision on November 22. The 1,700 members of the Central Committee are likely to vote to stage new elections, but may split over the date, media analysts suggested.

According to the official results of the party's September 4

"I demand voiding the primary and holding new elections" - Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg

primary vote, Burg won by some 1,100 votes. But Ben-Eliezer's camp contested the results, charging mass voter fraud and irregularities at many polling stations, especially in the Druze sector, which Burg won by a huge majority. Burg's supporters raised their own objections to certain results, but demanded that the Labor Party Election Committee declare Burg the winner of the ballot. Party officials have been bogged down in the dispute ever since, prompting many to believe that Burg would turn to the courts to ask for their intervention in determining the voting results.

Burg decided not to turn to the courts, because he didn't "want to be partner to the systematic and directed destruction of the party," he said at a press conference yesterday in Tel Aviv. "I will not lend a hand to lead it, as my opponent would, to months of slow, cruel suicide in the courts and external arbitration."

In his speech, Burg spared no harsh words for Ben-Eliezer and his supporters. "Factors with a vested interest cynically promoted Ben-Eliezer and shattered the party. The awful charges have stained the entire Druze community," he said.

Burg said the Ben-Eliezer camp had objected to every effort he made to uncover the true election results. "Anyone who would take over the party chairmanship without cleaning the stains from the mudslinging will have a cloud over his head and will not be respected as the legitimate leader," he said. "I therefore demand voiding the primary and holding new elections."

Burg reportedly prefers that the new elections would be held in a year's time. He is hoping that some of Ben-Eliezer's luster as Defense Minister will fade over time, and that if the Labor Party would leave the national unity government, Ben-Eliezer would become a lowly Knesset member while as Speaker, Burg would remain in the spotlight, Ha'aretz suggested.

Ben-Eliezer said last night that the correct way for the Labor Party to finalize the primary vote would be to hold new elections within two weeks only in the 46 disputed polling stations. "I will accept any decision that the party's institutions recommend, as long as the process is immediate - in a week, two weeks, a month, but I will not accept playing games," he said. "If Burg does not accept my proposal, then I expect the party's institutions to declare me the chairman."

Ben-Eliezer emphasized that he objects to holding new elections only in a year's time, because this would be a "zigzag" that would punish the thousands of party members who had voted in September. "If the Labor Party wants to begin its process of rehabilitation and offer itself as an alternative to the public, it must end the election process immediately," he said.

Peres seen as only winner in party's primary saga
Burg and Ben-Eliezer both said that they would support opening the primary elections to additional candidates. MK Haim Ramon said yesterday that if Burg's proposal is accepted, and if the elections are held in a year's time, he would stand as a candidate for party leadership. But Ramon may decide to remain on the sidelines until after Burg or Ben-Eliezer leads the party to defeat at the next general elections, Yediot Aharonot reported.

MK Shlomo Ben-Ami has not stated if he would be a candidate in the next party vote. Maariv reported that Ben-Ami is waiting for the Or Commission to clear him of all responsibility for the riots in the Israeli Arab sector last October before deciding on his future.

Other potential candidates for party leadership include Minister of Science, Culture & Sport Matan Vilnai and Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh. Both are considered trustworthy, popular party members, each with a growing base of supporters, Maariv reported.

While former Prime Minister Ehud Barak has not yet reversed his decision to take a break from politics after his loss to Ariel Sharon in the February special elections, he is expected to address the Central Committee later this month and ask the party to support his proposal of unilateral separation from the Palestinians.

Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres appears to be the only Labor leader to have come out ahead in the party's primaries saga, Ha'aretz reported. Labor Secretary-General Ra'anan Cohen said that until the primary, a leadership team headed by Peres should run the party and include Burg, Ben-Eliezer, Labor faction chairman Effi Oshaya and himself.

Peres would not reject a proposal to serve as Acting Chairman of the Labor Party, Yediot Aharonot reported. Peres's opinion, so far kept to himself, will influence the Central Committee's decision when to hold the next ballot for party leader, Maariv reported. The paper suggested that in Peres's opinion, the ballot should only take place after he retires from politics.

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