Livni’s Hatnua party fleshes out its Knesset slate ahead of election deadline

Tzipi Livni’s newly founded Hatnua (The Movement) party on Saturday began filling its ranks, ahead of next week’s deadline for submitting Knesset lists.

Amram Mitzna, a former Labor Party leader and reservist brigadier general, as well as the mayor of Haifa between 1993 and 2002, announced Saturday evening that he was joining the ex-foreign minister and former Kadima party leader’s new slate ahead of the January 22, 2013, vote. He served as a member of the 16th Knesset as Labor Party leader before resigning in 2005.

Mitzna was rumored to be named Livni’s No. 2 on the Hatnua list.

Former state comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss has also been approached by Livni to join The Movement, according to Haaretz.

Merav Cohen, a member of the Jerusalem city council, announced that she was joining the Hatnua team, which now also includes diplomat Daniel Shek; and Boaz Nol, one of the leaders of the Suckers’ movement, which has spearheaded the struggle for universal conscription, and six former members of the Kadima party who split off to join Livni, Israel Radio reported.

The Labor Party slammed Livni’s latest recruitment, and especially her enlistment of Mitzna, the party’s former leader, and called on her to join Labor.

“The only people Livni is succeeding in gathering are the leavings of other parties and the losers of the political system,” a statement from the party read. “With our excellent slate of MKs, we reiterate our invitation to Livni to stop sabotaging the center bloc and instead join [Labor Party chair Shelly] Yachimovich in our common task of replacing the Netanyahu government.”

An elections poll published on Saturday by Israel’s Channel 1 projected that Hatnua would win nine seats in the upcoming elections.