PRIMARIES fever gripped Israel yesterday as members of the ruling Labour Party went to the polls to choose their list of party candidates for the national election on May 29th.
With most of the top spots on the party list expected to be filled by serving Labour ministers, the real focus was on who would fill the number two position behind the party leader and Prime Minister, Mr Shimon Peres.
The battle has been fought out between two of Labour's young guard, the Foreign Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, and the Interior Minister, Mr Haim Ramon. With both regarded as prospective future candidates for prime minister, the contest has been seen as a battle for prestige.
The two, who are both in their early 50s, recently met publicly and shook hands in an effort to dispel reports that tension between them was undermining the party's election campaign. Polls showed them running neck and neck.
Unlike Mr Ramon, who has spent much of his life in politics. Mr Barak only entered the political fray last year after completing his term as army chief of staff. He is considered more hardline on political issues than Mr Ramon, who left his post as head of the country's Histadrut Labour Federation to join the government after the assassination of the Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, last November.
Amid torrential rain and strong winds only about two thirds of the 285,000 party members eligible to vote at 1,200 polling booths around the country were expected to do so. For the contestants the race was extremely crowded with 185 candidates competing for only 45 realistic spots Labour won 44 seats in the previous election and polls predict the party will garner a similar number this time round.
At the Tel Aviv Exhibition Centre where the votes were being counted, pictures of both Mr Peres and Mr Rabin adorned the watts, as did Labour's new election slogan "A strong Israel with Peres."
Today the opposition Likud Party elects its list of candidates also by means of primaries which are a recent addition to the Israeli political scene. For many years lists of candidates were drawn up in smoky backrooms by party officials. Yet, while most parties have embraced this American type innovation, there has also been much criticism of the new system.
The primaries, some political observers have argued, appear to discriminate against less well known candidates who, unlike serving parliamentarians, have to spend huge sums of money to advertise themselves to tens of thousands of party members.
Some have criticised the new system for being gimmick driven, while not forcing the candidates to confront the pressing issues. "In the primaries," writes leading political commentator Nahum Barnea of the daily Yediot Ahronot "it's permissible to talk about everything, except about your views. As in a beauty contest, the candidates are asked questions. As in a beauty contest, no one listens to the answers. Charm, that's what counts."