BICOM

After members of Israel’s Labour Party went to the polls yesterday, Isaac Herzog secured second spot on the party’s list of Knesset candidates ahead of January’s election.

Approximately 60% of the Labour Party’s 60,424 members cast their vote yesterday to determine the party’s candidates for what is expected to be the second-largest faction in the next Knesset. With top spot on the list reserved for party leader Shelly Yachimovich, her close ally Issac Herzog secured second place, beating Yachimovich’s main internal rival Amir Peretz into third place.

With the top twenty slots on the party list considered to be realistically electable positions, a number of high profile newcomers appear to have a good chance of becoming members of the next Knesset.  They include Stav Shaffir and Itzik Shmuli, two of the most prominent leaders of the summer 2011 social protest movement, Ofer Bar-Lev, the former commander of the Sayeret Matkal commando unit, journalist Merav Michaeli and current Kadima MKs Nachman Shai and Nino Abesadze.

Meanwhile, two new polls were published in the Israeli media this morning, both of which confirmed that the Labour Party is expected to win the second largest number of seats behind the joint Likud-Beitenu list. Yediot Ahronot’‎s poll indicates that if elections were held today, Likud-Beiteinu would receive 37 seats and the Labour Party would win 19 seats, while Tzipi Livni’s new Hatnuah party would receive nine mandates as would Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid. A Israel Hayom poll produced similar results, indicating that Likud-Beitenu will receive 39 seats, the Labour Party 20 seats, with ten for Yesh Atid and seven for Hatnuah.