Knesset incumbents won the top ten spots in the Meretz bloc’s primaries. The results of the voting were released Monday, a day after Meretz members went to the polls to choose their list of candidates for the Knesset elections.
Members of the secularist Meretz bloc have expressed concern about recent surveys indicating that Eretz may see its current 12 Knesset seats cut in half in the upcoming national elections, slated for May 29.
“I think there are several reasons for our standings in the polls at the moment,” said Knesset member Naomi Chazen, who came in eighth on the list.
Chazan said that some popular support had shifted to the Labor Party after it adopted some of Meretz’s positions related to the peace process.
She also said that same younger supporters had gone over to Labor after the November assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.
But, she added, those shifts were not irreversible.
Communications Minister Shulamit Aloni, who helped found Meretz in 1992 on a platform of peace with the Palestinians and progressive social policies, decided in January not to run in the current elections after the party leadership was assumed by Environment Minister Yossi Sarid.
But she, along with Absorption Minister Yair Tsaban, who also is not running are expected to remain active in the movement.
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