The United Right-Wing list has turned to the Central Election Committee with a request to move Otzma Yehudit candidate attorney Itamar Ben-Givir to the fourth slot on the joint ticket after the High Court of Justice earlier in the week disqualified the candidacy of Otzma Yehudit leader, Dr. Michael Ben-Ari.

An urgent letter was sent to the committee chair, Justice Chanan Meltzer, asking to update the party’s list following the disqualification of Ben-Ari from the fourth slot. In the letter, which is signed by Bayit Yehudi Chairman Rabbi Rafi Peretz and Ichud Leumi Chairman MK Betzalel Smotrich, they explain that while the deadline for changes has passed, an exception should be made in light of the High Court’s ruling earlier in the week.

It is pointed out that the chances of such a change occurring are slim, as the lists have been closed. If a candidate leaves the race, or is disqualified as occurred, the list simply remains in the same order, but all concerned move up a slot. However, in this case, since there are three parties running together, Bayit Yehudi, Ichud Leumi and Otzma Yehudit, by everyone simply moving up a slot, Otzma Yehudit’s candidate, who was in a realistic fourth slot, will now remain outside of Knesset.

Hence, the letter points out that the request from Likud candidate Yaakov Ben-Ben-Sa’adon, representative of the Shvelah region, received the 19th spot on the Likud list in place of Pinchas Idan who left the race. The election committee rejected Ben-Sa’adon’s request and he then petitioned the court, and a ruling is pending.

That being the case, they want to see Ben-Givir in Ben-Ari’s fourth slot, and in the eighth position, to place Yitzchak Shimon Versaloff, the Otzma Yehudit candidate now in the 39th slot, all towards maintaining the party’s representation in the joint ticket known as the United Right-Wing.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)