Ayalon leads Labor race

Ami Ayalon, a former Israeli security chief, is the frontrunner for next week’s Labor Party primary, a poll found. The survey, which appeared in Yediot Achronot’s weekend edition, predicted Ayalon will take 35 percent of votes in Monday’s election, followed by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak with 31 percent and Defense Minister Amir Peretz, the incumbent Labor leader, with 20 percent. The results suggest there will be a June run-off between Ayalon, a former Shin Bet security chief and navy admiral, and Barak. Should that happen, Yediot found, Ayalon would win with 49 percent of votes against Barak’s 39 percent.The poll has 600 respondents. No margin of error was given.