The Labor Party Central Committee on Thursday voted by a convincing majority to hold the party's leadership primaries on May 28, 2007.

The Labor chairman, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, told the Tel Aviv conference that he would back the date, put forward by National Infrastructures Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer as a compromise.

In his speech to conference, Peretz said he was "not afraid of competing in an election, and will therefore back Ben-Eliezer's proposed date."

	Advertisement

The central committee also agreed on January 30, 2007 as the closing date for the registration of party members.

Other factions within the party, including that led by the supporters of former prime minister Ehud Barak, have called for primaries on a variety of different dates.

Party members backing Peretz had tried to delay the decision on the date of the primaries in order to postpone the election of the party chairman to a time well past June 2007.

Other possible runners for the party's top position sought to hold the primaries before mid-2007: Ophir Pines-Pez wants the vote as soon as January 2007; Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon (a crony of Ehud Barak) opted for March and Ami Ayalon said he would like the primaries to be held in May or June of next year.