1992 Israeli Labor Party leadership election

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The 1992 Israeli Labor Party leadership election was held on 20 February 1992[1] to elect the leader of the Israeli Labor Party. The winner was Yitzhak Rabin, who defeated Shimon Peres, as well as Yisrael Kessar and Ora Namir.

Background[]

The election was the first time that the Israeli Labour Party had elected its leader by a vote open to its entire party membership.[2] It was the first party leadership vote of its kind in Israeli history.[3]

Shimon Peres had served as the party's leader since 1977.[2]

Candidates[]

Campaign[]

The race was widely a horserace between Rabin and Peres.[2]

Ahead of the leadership election, polling for the upcoming 1992 Israeli legislative election indicated that the party would fare better in the legislative election under the leadership of Rabin than it would under Peres.[4] Israeli political commentators also widely believed that the party would have a stronger odds of electoral success under Rabin than under Peres.[2] While polling, before the leadership election, had a Likud-led coalition as the likely outcome of the legislative election, polling and the opinions of commentators indicated that, if were Rabin were to become the Labour leader, there would be a strong increase in the chances of Labour taking lead in the legislative election.[2]

Polls showed the leadership election to be very close, with no clear front-runner between Rabin and Peres.[2]

Result[]

108,347 party members participated in the vote, equal to 70.10% of the party's roughly 150,000 members.[3][5]

If no candidate had received at least 40% of the vote, a runoff election would have been held.[1] Rabin placed first, and managed to narrowly surpass the 40% threshold, thereby winning the leadership election outright in the initial round.[3]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Black, Ian (21 Feb 1992). "Rabin boosts Labour's poll chances". Newspapers.com. The Guardian. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Walker, Tony (20 Feb 1992). "Rabin v Peres shapes up as a close tussle". Newspapers.com. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Hadar, Leon T. (1992). "The Israeli Labor Party: Peacemaker or Likud II?" (PDF). Journal of Palestine Studies. pp. 80–94. doi:10.2307/2537521. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  4. ^ Black, Ian (20 Feb 1992). "Rabin 'beats Peres' to head Labour". Newspapers.com. The Guardian. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  5. ^ Kenig, Ofer (1 February 2021). "The Labor Party Primary Elections". en.idi.org.il (in Hebrew). Israeli Democracy Institute. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
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