Degel HaTorah held its first planning meeting at party
offices in Bnei Brak last week, bringing together all members
of the district planning committees, who received guidelines
and directives for the upcoming elections.
Degel HaTorah organizers handed out to each of the dozens of
party workers filling the meeting room, orderly folders
including the names of all members of the 18 district
committees around the country and a comprehensive list of
polling places. Each representative also received the results
for all of the parties in the previous Knesset elections,
with breakdowns according to city and polling station.
The meeting was opened by Rabbi Avrohom Weber, Degel
HaTorah's representative on the Central Elections Committee,
and Rabbi Moshe Shiffman, Degel HaTorah's Knesset director
and stand-in member of the Central Elections Committee.
They passed on a long list of directives, stressing the need
to stand firm in every district as the elections approach and
to organize before the polling places are assigned. They also
conveyed detailed instructions for Election Day itself, from
early morning through the arrival of the ballots at the
respective district elections committees at the end of
Election Day.
The representatives participating in the meeting, some
district committee members for over 20 years, contributed
their own personal experience from previous election
campaigns, posed questions regarding problems in previous
election campaigns and were briefed on how to solve the
problems during the campaign and on Election Day.
The district committee members were provided with an update
on new legislation pertaining to the election campaign,
including laws that took effect only recently.
Degel HaTorah Secretary MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni addressed the
committee members, thanking them for taking the trouble to
come to the meeting from every part of the country and
stressing the importance of the task placed on each committee
member.
Rabbi Gafni then presented a political overview regarding the
party lists to be submitted to the Knesset, noting Degel
HaTorah was demanding the sixth spot on the joint list in
accordance with instructions by maranan verabonon. "In
the case of two equally powerful constituencies, it would be
unreasonable for one to have four representatives and the
other two," said Rabbi Gafni. "There can be no such reality
and there is no coming to terms with it. If the negotiations
were complete and the joint election campaign got underway
right now, it would be possible to exceed six mandates."
The campaign workers left the meeting filled with motivation
as the election campaign draws near.
In some chareidi areas local Degel HaTorah branches have
begun assigning campaign workers to different tasks and have
even begun to search for places to set up the local election
bureaus.
