Labor Party members from the Druze community, led by Minister without Portfolio Salah Tarif, decided Thursday to boycott next week's revote for the party's leadership, in effect handing the victory to Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer. The Druze decision, made at an Acre meeting of some 200 leading party members from the community, is considered a body blow to Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg's effort to capture the party's chair.
According to Haaretz, it is especially disappointing for Burg since Tarif was one of his key backers in the race. The revote on December 26 is being held because of suspicions that there was widespread fraud in the first vote, held on September 4, which gave Burg a slender margin of victory. Druze community ballots account for nearly 50 percent of some 10,000 voters who are supposed to go back to the polls. (Albawaba.com)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
