|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
(May 19) - Though most of the small, new parties that ran in this election didn't cross the threshold, there are two that still might. Pnina Rosenblum and Green Leaves are anxiously waiting for the absentee ballots to be counted in the hope that the votes from soldiers, diplomats, hospital patients and prison inmates will bring them up to 1.5 percent of the vote. "We're still optimistic. We have a lot of fans in jail," Green Leaves (Alei Yarok) chairman Boaz Wachtel said yesterday. "If they vote for us, maybe next time they won't sit in jail." Rosenblum said on Monday night that she felt she had a lot of support from the soldiers, especially the female soldiers, though she was less optimistic yesterday. "I think there was a good show for me," she said, adding that she has gotten numerous letters of support throughout the day. "I went back to my business today. Whatever happens will happen." According to the results the Central Election Committee's released yesterday before the absentee ballots were counted, Rosenblum was about 8,000 votes short with 42,351. Power to the Pensioners (Koah L'gimlaim) was also close with 36,065 votes and Green Leaves had 28,669. Pensioners chairman Gideon Ben-Israel did not expect the absentee ballots to help the party, saying it would be a miracle if they did. "We're all young in spirit, but among the soldiers we don't have many supporters. I don't expect a dramatic change," he said, adding that he will continue to fight for pensioners rights in his capacity as chairman of the Israel Pensioners Union. The threshold won't be determined until after all the votes are counted today, but, a CEC official estimated it would be around 50,000. A number of the small parties didn't get anywhere close to that. The Green Party had 11,333 votes; Natural Law, 8,157; the Casino Party, 5,758; the Negev Party, 4,101; and the Men's Rights Party, 1,148. Despite the Negev Party's poor results in the election, Ethelea Katzenell, US immigrant who was No. 5 on list, was proud of its accomplishments. The party pushed the large parties to put representatives from the Negev on their lists, she said, and also managed to draw attention to the region. The party will not disband, she said, but "lobby, lobby, lobby and make everyone live up to their campaign promises [regarding the Negev]. We never cared if it was us personally [that got into the Knesset]. We just want something to get done." Other parties echoed these sentiments. Wachtel said his party had raised "awareness that the civil rights of a large minority in Israeli society is being damaged unjustly by wrong drug laws. "We're the first party that ran on a platform to change a criminal law. we've proven that this was important enough for 30-40,000 people to vote on this issue," he added. "We now know that lots of people believe in our cause, that we have a good chance to succeed [in future elections], that we still might [succeed in this election]. Maybe we were premature in running in these elections, which were very critical in Israel's history. Next time, in four years, we'll get in."
Links in this section:
Links to other sections: | |
|
Click here for feedback and comments. © 1999, The Jerusalem Post - All rights reserved 
| |
