Former prime minister Ehud Barak was declared the winner of the primary for the Labor Party leadership on Tuesday. Barak received 51.3 percent of the Labor Party members' votes, while his rival, MK Ami Ayalon achieved only 47.7 percent of the votes.

Shortly after midnight, with the majority of the votes counted, Barak headed to the Labor Party headquarters to deliver his victory address.

Israel Radio reported that the final count had been 34,960 votes for Barak and 31,100 votes for rival MK Ami Ayalon.

	Advertisement

Barak beat Ayalon in the counts for Jerusalem, the kibbutzim, moshavim and Druze and Arab sectors. Associates of Ayalon, who was victorious in Lod, Sdot Yam and Shoham, claimed that there had been fraudulent voting in the Arab and Druze communities, where Barak scored a comfortable win.

However, in a congratulatory phone call to Barak, Ayalon promised not to appeal the results, regardless of fraud. He promised to work together with Barak.

"Today I take office as Labor chairman, replacing Amir Peretz, and I wish to thank him for his work," Barak told his supporters in his victory speech.

Barak also thanked all the ministers and MKs that supported him in his campaign and called for a unification within the party. "In our joint efforts we will march hand in hand with all the constructive forces in the country. We have the best team, the most experienced group of any party in Israeli politics," Barak said.

I have been chosen to lead the achievement of the tasks at hand, but I intend to do so with a wonderful team. Together with Ami [Ayalon] and all the other wonderful friends. There is no regime without the public's trust. In these times of anxiety, distrust and the general feeling of a loss of the way and a loss of leadership, the Labor Party must place itself at the head of a democratic alternative for Israel," he added.

Barak called on Labor supporters that had abandoned the party with the election of Amir Peretz as is chairman a little over a year ago to "return home."

"Without anger and without taking inventory, I ask of you and call on you to come home. The Labor Party is your true home, and you know that, you feel that. We will welcome you back with open arms," he said.

"The internal competition has come to an end," Barak said, "now we must centralize our efforts and do our best, each in their own field. I will invest all my energy and knowledge into strengthening the defense establishment and the Israel Defense Forces, and returning to Israel the power of deterrence. We will march in the path of the founder of the state and in the path of the founding generation. A path that combines insistence on security without compromise while simultaneously maintaining a solidarity in Israel, working toward peace and truth, fortifying the leadership and rehabilitating society," he concluded.

Meanwhile, Barak's rival Ayalon said late Tuesday that when the final results of the primary are announced, "I will call Barak and we will join hands."

As the votes were being counted, Ayalon's headquarters maintained that they had proof some results had been falsified, and that they could also prove the fraud was carried out by Barak's activists. Ayalon's associates said that they would consider appealing the final results of the vote in light of the falsifications.

Ayalon said that he intends to seek a police investigation into the fraud.However, Ayalon called Barak and congratulated him on his win, and promised he would not appeal the results.

"Unfortunately, there have been grave falsification incidents on a very large scale. Beyond the testimonies that we have heard, we also possess clear proof of fraudulence, including a recording we have recently received," said Ayalon's strategic adviser Yuval Porat.

In an interview with Channel 2 News, the chairman of Labor's central elections committee said that "there have been incidences of violence but thus far there has been no indication of fraud."

MK Ayalon and his associate Avishai Braverman arrived late Tuesday at Ayalon's headquarters in Tel Aviv. They both refused to comment on Barak's victory or the allegations of foul play.

Official results from the Kibbutz sector were released Tuesday evening with Barak winning 54.4 percent of the vote, compared to 44 percent for Ayalon and 1.6 percent who abstained. In the moshavim, where there was a voter turnout of 72 percent, Barak won 60 percent of the vote to Ayalon's 40 percent.

In the Druze sector, Barak won 4,323 votes compared to 2,518 for Ayalon.

Other official results point to a significant advantage for Barak in the Arab sectors. In Umm al-Fahm, Barak received 156 votes compared to 42 for his opponent.

Barak scored a slim victory in Jerusalem, receiving 1,097 votes compared to 1,043 for Ayalon. In Lod, Ayalon received 420 votes compared to only 39 for the former prime minister.

There was a relatively high voter turnout in the election, with 64.5 percent of Labor Party members casting their ballots.

Both Barak and Ayalon invested a great deal of effort in recent days to bring out thousands of voters who did not participate in the first round two weeks ago.

Barak cast his ballot in Kfar Sava, while Ayalon voted in Geva Carmel.

During a visit to a polling station in Ramat Gan, Barak was asked by a voter to describe the difference between himself and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu.

"The difference is that Bibi is a bad person who walks all over people," Barak responded, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname. "I do not walk all over people."

While visiting a polling booth in Givatayim, the former prime minister was asked if Ami Ayalon and current party chairman Amir Peretz, who was eliminated in the first round, would have a place in the government should he win.

"We will find the appropriate place for everyone," Barak answered. He reiterated the central message of his campaign - that only he can defeat Netanyahu, prepare Israel for war, and make the right decisions for peace.

Addressing a conference organized by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel on Tuesday, Ayalon called for an all-out war against government corruption.

"[This war must be] based above all on full backing for all judicial, investigative, and ombudsman authorities in Israel."

During a visit to Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael, Ayalon said: "As someone who grew up in the Kibbutz movement and was raised on its values, I believe that the movement has a central role in restoring the country's sanity."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to begin immediate negotiations with the the new Labor chairman Barak, with the objective of presenting the new make-up of the cabinet within two weeks.

As tension mounted and the candidates courted votes, Israel Radio reported that Peretz's daughter had begun to clear his belongings from the offices of the party chairman.

After his elimination in the first round of voting, Peretz had thrown his weight behind Ayalon, who served as the commander-in-chief of Israel's navy and head of the Shin Bet security service before entering politics.

In 2003, Ayalon joined forces with Palestinian university professor Sari Nusseibeh, to produce "The People's Voice" peace plan.