Labor MKs Pines-Paz, Herzog top party vote for minister positions

MKs Ophir Pines-Paz and Isaac Herzog won the top positions as the Labor Party's Central Committee voted Thursday on the list of members who would make up the party's contingent of ministers in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's coalition.

MK Benjamin Ben-Eliezer was third on the list, followed by Dalia Itzik, Shalom Simhon, Matan Vilnai and Haim Ramon.

Some 88 percent of the Central Committee's 2,188 members voted to select MKs who would take up seven ministerial portfolios in the future coalition government, with 13 candidates vying for the available positions.

The cabinet positions available to them are Interior, National Infrastructure, Housing, Communications, Environment and two positions as ministers without portfolio, one of them in the Prime Minister's Office.

Former ministers Ephraim Sneh, Avraham Shochat and Yuli Tamir, as well as former party chairman MK Amram Mitzna did not attain the necessary votes to be eligible for the available positions.

The party's Central Committee also selected MKs Eli Ben-Menachem and Orit Noked as deputy ministers in the coalition, defeating Ghaleb Majadla and Colette Avital.

Also Thursday, a Knesset committee was to debate an amendment to the basic law that would allow Labor Chairman Shimon Peres to be appointed a second vice-premier in the new government.

The swearing-in of the cabinet is expected to take place in two weeks.

The Labor Party internal vote began at 11 A.M. at the Exhibition Grounds in Tel Aviv was completed by 8 P.M.

The legal wrangling did not seem to interrupt the energetic campaigning of the candidates on Wednesday, and they were making their calls to hundreds of party members into the night.

According to the selection process, each of the central committee members selected five candidates. The candidate with the most votes will select the portfolio he or she wishes. Then the second most popular candidate will make his or her choice and so forth.

Peres is exempt from the selection process but is still waiting for a resolution of the issue of his post as deputy prime minister along with Minister of Industry and Trade Ehud Olmert (Likud).

Thursday's Labor vote is regarded as a significant popularity contest that will determine the power centers inside the party.

The results will point to the degree of strength inside the central committee of Ben-Eliezer, who would like the Interior Ministry portfolio.

Settling 'Peres law' could take three weeksThe Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee will hold intensive debates over the so-called Peres amendment to the Basic Law: The Government, aimed at allowing Peres to be appointed a second vice-premier.

The committee will hold three consecutive sessions on the matter on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and will hear expert legal opinions on the ramifications of legislation proposed to achieve a coalition.

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz will be summoned to appear first, followed by professors and other academic experts on constitutional law, among them Prof. Ze'ev Segal and Dr. Suzie Navot.

Committee chairman MK Michael Eitan (Likud) told Haaretz Wednesday night that two additional sessions would be held the following week and only afterward would the amendment be brought to the plenum for a first reading, apparently on January 5.

Once the amendment passes its first reading, the committee will reconvene for two further debates on the matter.

On Tuesday, Eitan promised Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that the amendment process will be completed by January 10. This means that if Labor insists on joining the government only after the amendment is ratified, presentation of the new cabinet will be held up for another three weeks at least.

	Labor Party chairman Shimon Peres is seen at the internal vote for cabinet ministers at Tel Aviv's Exhibition Grounds on Thursday. (Alon Ron)