The Herut Central Committee has selected 35 candidates from which it will draw up its July 23 election list in another secret ballot later this week.
The voting Thursday night was a weeding out process from among 140 party members who presented themselves for election to the next Knesset. But while the order in which the candidates were selected does not necessarily correspond to the order in which they will be presented to the voters, the outcome was an unexpected setback for former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon.
On the basis of votes cast, Sharon drew ninth place. Only two week ago he surprised politicians and the country at large by winning more than 40 percent of the Central Committee’s votes in a twoman contest with Premier Yitzhak Shamir for leadership of Herut and the top place on its ticket. It was widely expected that he would place high among the candidates and that at least four of his supporters would gain places on the final list.
ARENS IS THE MOST POPULAR CANDIDATE
In the event, only one, David Magen, made the list and that in itself was considered a rebuff to Sharon whose supporters had predicted an even greater show of strength on the basis of his strong challenge to Shamir. The most popular candidate among the 35 was Defense Minister Moshe Arens whose policies have been publicly criticized by his predecessor, Sharon.
Arens won 571 votes, follwed by Deputy Premier David Levy with 521 and former Finance Minister Yoram Aridor with 469. Aridor easily topped his successor, incumbent Finance Minister Yigal Cohen-Organ who placed seventh in the popularity contest. Herut’s final election list, when it is completed this week, will be dovetailed with the election list of its Likud partner, the Liberal Party, according to a formula established some 20 years ago when Herut and the Liberals joined forces to form the Gahal alliance, which later became Likud.
Herut loyalists have been touting the party’s internal election process as the most democratic anywhere in the world. But observers noted that of the 140-would-be candidates, only five were women, only six were Druze or Arabs and only 50 were Sephardim.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
