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May 29, 2007
various election tidbits
In Syria they held elections today. The incumbent president, Bashaar Assad, successfully garnered 97% of the vote and has been re-elected in a landslide victory to another term. The thing is, he was the only candidate running in the elections. So who did the remaining 3% of voters vote for?
At this point in time, the primaries in the Labor party are still too close to call. Barak and Ayalon seem to be running neck and neck. Neither may get the required 40%, but both seem to be close. They will likely face each other in a second round runoff, though there is still a chance one of them might break the 40% threshold to take it in the first round. Either way, it looks like Peretz will not be pulling off the surprise victory he pulled off last time against Peres. If he does, it will be a really big surprise.
In Presidential elections in Israel, Peres has been officially declared the candidate of the Kadima Party. Olmert today, when making the announcement, said he would do everythign in his power to help Peres win the presidency. At the same time, some other Kadima MKs and ministers stated that Peres could very well lose the elections. Haim Ramon from Kadima said that Peres only has a 50% chance of winning. I guess that is why it is called elections and not Syria, where the candidate has upwards of a 90% chance of success. Avigdor Yitzhaki said they should have considered other candidates...
In Egypt they are also preparing for upcoming elections. There, they arrested three of the candidates who were supposed to be running in the elections for Parliament. It seems they were members of an illegal party....
Speaking of illegal parties and elections, today the murderer (Khaled Shawish) of Binyamin Zev Kahane and his wife Talia was captured. He had been hiding out for the past few years in PA Chairman Abbas' Muqata (no relation to Jameel's Muqata, at least none that I know of).. Just a few days ago some unnamed sources announced the Kahane's party Kach, which had been banned from the Knesset under the banner of being racist, is running a public campaign to try to get reinstated.
At this point in time, the primaries in the Labor party are still too close to call. Barak and Ayalon seem to be running neck and neck. Neither may get the required 40%, but both seem to be close. They will likely face each other in a second round runoff, though there is still a chance one of them might break the 40% threshold to take it in the first round. Either way, it looks like Peretz will not be pulling off the surprise victory he pulled off last time against Peres. If he does, it will be a really big surprise.
In Presidential elections in Israel, Peres has been officially declared the candidate of the Kadima Party. Olmert today, when making the announcement, said he would do everythign in his power to help Peres win the presidency. At the same time, some other Kadima MKs and ministers stated that Peres could very well lose the elections. Haim Ramon from Kadima said that Peres only has a 50% chance of winning. I guess that is why it is called elections and not Syria, where the candidate has upwards of a 90% chance of success. Avigdor Yitzhaki said they should have considered other candidates...
In Egypt they are also preparing for upcoming elections. There, they arrested three of the candidates who were supposed to be running in the elections for Parliament. It seems they were members of an illegal party....
Speaking of illegal parties and elections, today the murderer (Khaled Shawish) of Binyamin Zev Kahane and his wife Talia was captured. He had been hiding out for the past few years in PA Chairman Abbas' Muqata (no relation to Jameel's Muqata, at least none that I know of).. Just a few days ago some unnamed sources announced the Kahane's party Kach, which had been banned from the Knesset under the banner of being racist, is running a public campaign to try to get reinstated.
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Nice roundup. More and more I'm reading your blog to get some good info on the constant political flow of Israel.
ReplyDeletethanks jacob
ReplyDeleteThe results are astounding. Barak won with 35.6% while Peretz got a respectable 22.4%. For more Labor primaries results - unbelievable
ReplyDeletetwo things, bluke -
ReplyDelete1. the results are not that astounding. they are pretty close to the predictions, other than the good showing that Perezt put forth. He came in better than expected. I have my theories on that and will write something soon.
2. Barak did not really win. He took the most votes, but there was not a winner. Since nobody took 40%, they now have to move to a second round of voting between the top two vote-getters. That would be Ami Ayalon and Ehud Barak. Barak still has a lot of work to do, as does Ayalon. They each have to try to get the others to back him so they can pull down most of their voters....