Court orders immediate halt to labor union vote count

A court on Wednesday ordered an immediate halt to a vote count for the leadership elections of the Histadrut national labor union after one of the candidates filed an appeal alleging “massive irregularities” with the voting process.

Following the Tel Aviv District Court’s ruling that the vote count be stopped, Zionist Union MK Shelly Yachimovich,who had appeared to fall in the hotly contested vote to current Histadrut head Avi Nissenkorn, hailed the decision as “further proof that this was the most corrupt electoral process of all time.”

“It turns out there were not only threats and intimidation against workers who were scared of losing their livelihoods, but that a systematized method of threatening was invented” to intimidate them, the Ynet news site quoted her as saying.

A hearing will now be held on Thursday at the Tel Aviv District Court, which will be attended by lawyers for both Yachimovich and Nissenkorn.

Yachimovich’s appeal, which was filed earlier Wednesday, alleged that hundreds of ballot boxes were “knowingly tampered with.”

“We are appealing to the court for an immediate cease and desist order to stop the vote counting process for the Histadrut election, in light of the presence of hundreds of faulty ballot boxes that were knowingly tampered with and massive irregularities that raise the heavy suspicion that the results are not true results,” Yachimovich’s lawyer Eitan Liraz was quoted as saying by Hebrew media reports.

“In addition, the required evidence is being gathered at the moment for an appeal for the cancellation of the entire voting process,” he said. “It appears to be one of the greatest cases of electoral corruption in the history of the state.”

Yachimovich’s election headquarters pointed the finger at associates of Nissenkorn as being responsible for the supposed irregularities, alleging that ballots were altered under their supervision.

“Trucks carrying ballot boxes from Haifa and Hadera only arrived at the [vote] counting center late in the morning — after wandering around all night accompanied only by Nissenkorn’s people,” The Marker business daily quoted Yachimovich’s election headquarters as saying.

In response to the allegations, Nissenkorn’s election headquarters said the claims showed that “Yachimovich has lost all touch with reality.”

“No appeal, announcement, crying, slander or spin will undo the fact that Yachimovich was defeated at the ballot box by close to 250,000 workers that did not want her,” it said, according to Hebrew media reports.

As of Wednesday evening, Nissenkorn was leading with some 60 percent of the vote, while support for Yachimovich stood around 40%. The final results had been expected to be announced on Thursday.

Founded in 1920, the Histadrut union quickly grew to be one of the most powerful institutions both in Mandate-era Palestine and, later, in Israel. Although the influence of organized labor has waned in recent years, the Histadrut’s large membership ensures its ability to call paralyzing strikes, and the head of the organization is considered one of the most powerful political brokers in Israel.

Elections for the Histadrut take place every five years, but Nissenkorn’s predecessor Ofer Eini resigned two years into his second term as chairman, allowing his deputy to take the helm.

Burying speculation that she was gearing up to mount a challenge on Labor Party chair Isaac Herzog, Yachimovich announced in February that she would seek to become the head of the federation.

Yachimovich, who headed Labor from 2011 to 2013, said she had been “deliberating the move for many months,” and that despite the need to resign from the Knesset if victorious, she was confident she would be able to play a key role in national decision-making as Histadrut chairwoman.

She has attacked Nissenkorn throughout the campaign as a “front” for Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon’s economic policies. Early in the campaign he gained a key endorsement from Kahlon as well as a number of Labor MKs, among them party leader Isaac Herzog.

Nissenkorn, who fought to prevent Yachimovich from joining the race in the first place, has called her a “fire-starter” and questioned her ability to lead cool-headed negotiations with the government.

Throughout her career in politics, and before that as a media personality, Yachimovich gained a reputation for antagonism to big business. Launching Labor’s election campaign in 2012, she called for Israel to take a more socialist approach to government. “Our goal is to establish an alternative, responsible, social democratic government,” she said.

If Yachimovich is able to win, she will have to resign as a Knesset member, allowing Druze community activist Salah Saad to enter parliament as the next candidate on electoral list of the Zionist Union, an amalgamation of the Labor Party and Hatnua.

Raoul Wootliff contributed to this report.