The Labor Party cancelled today's primaries after the computer system for the voting supplied by Taldor Group (TASE: TALD) crashed. The party rescheduled the primaries for next Wednesday - and those elections will use paper ballots.
Today's primaries opened normally, but reports quickly flooded the Labor Party headquarters of flaws in the computer system and long lines of voters seeking to cast their ballots. Party candidates also had trouble voting.
One candidate, Anat Wilf, who was supposed to vote in Tel Aviv, had to go to Bat Yam, after the computer system broke down, and when the system at Bat Yam failed, went to Rosh Ha'ayin. There, too, it was not possible to vote. A fourth attempt to cast her ballot in Petah Tikva succeeded. Minister of Agriculture Shalom Simhon had to wait from 10 am to 1 pm, and was still unable to vote.
Some computer systems did not recognize the name of Minister of National Infrastructures Benjamin Ben-Eliezer.
Labor Party officials cancelled the primaries at the request of party leaders, who said that voters had abandoned the voting booths. Candidates said that unless the primaries were cancelled, they would appeal any results to the party elections committee.
A Labor Party spokesman accused Taldor of "mini fraud". He said, "We were promised that everything would go faster."
Taldor said in response that it regretted the computer crash, and that it would do whatever necessary to assist in next week's primaries. Taldor's share was unchanged at NIS 4.30 by early afternoon.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 2, 2008
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2008