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New DM and newly elected Labor party leader Ehud Barak, is congratulated on the phone by PM Ehud Olmert after he was sworn in by the Knesset in Jerusalem, June 18 2007. (Photo by Olivier Fitoussi /Flash90)
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| By Israel Insider staff July 19, 2007 |
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An investigation was opened Thursday into suspected voter fraud during June's Labor Party primaries in the Arab and Druse sectors, marking the third consecutive Labor primary requiring police involvement.
Head of the police's investigations division, Cmdr. Yohanan Danino decided to open the investigation following a request by Amnon Strashnov, chairman of the party's central elections committee.
An internal party investigation uncovered that "unkosher and illegal activities" occurredhad during the voting. The investigation found that people had voted twice, that hundreds of votes had been counted at sites where only a small crowd was present, and that in one case, a man dressed as a woman cast a vote.
According to Ynetnews, the police will be investigating irregularities that occurred at four separate voting stations, two of which yielded a majority for new party chairman Ehud Barak, with MK Ami Ayalon winning the majority in the other two.
After Ayalon lost to Barak, he said that, instead of appealing the results of the primaries, he wanted the matter investigated.
"I plan to report what I have seen at the party to the police and the state comptroller, and any necessary body, because the Labor Party is my home, and my home will be clean," he stated.
Opponents of Barak in Labor also criticized him of rushing to establish himself as defense minister before the police investigation began.
"It's very sad that in a party that wants to rule again, 50 vote contractors decide who our defense minister will be," said one Barak opponent in Labor. "Barak complained about [former Labor chairman Amir] Peretz's forgeries when it was convenient for him, and now he's being silent, because he benefited from the forgeries." |
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