Poll outcome appears certain

By Kesava Menon

BEERSHEVA (ISRAEL) FEB. 5. For anyone accustomed to the tumult and noise of Indian election campaigns, the canvassing process in other democracies can appear as pretty tame affairs. Israel's domestic politics is usually quite turbulent and the lack of public involvement in the campaign for tomorrow's poll could be attributable to the fact that the outcome is virtually certain. But the procedures and practices followed here are such that even ``normal'' elections are a different, more intimate, affair.

Israel's Prime Minister, Mr. Ehud Barak, who is battling heavy odds in his bid for re-election, came here last night for his two last public programmes before the polls open on Tuesday morning. Till even an hour before the function began few in the rain-swept sleepy centre of this city seemed aware that the Prime Minister was visiting the town. Even the taxi-drivers, the ubiquitous providers of speedy information, were taken aback at the unexpected sight of a heavy security cordon around a suburban marriage-cum-community hall.

``Is Barak coming here?'' the driver asked before muttering, ``This is very bad.'' He was upset not because he was a die-hard supporter of Mr. Barak's rival, Mr. Ariel Sharon, but because the Prime Ministerial presence might disrupt the flow of traffic. Upset because the Prime Minister's visit might disrupt the traffic flow in a part of town where there were only a few factories that were anyway closed at that time of the evening. That man, who has not had to sit in the smog-filled air of an intersection for an hour waiting for a huge cavalcade to pass, had no concept of how lucky he was.

It was a relief, and an education, to know that politicians can go about their business without disrupting the flow of life or defacing property. Venues appear to be chosen with care for the convenience of the general public, posters are stuck only on billboards provided for the purpose and there are no loudspeakers blasting the air at every corner. Private enterprise in the furtherance of either campaign consists of a couple or three men stringing banners from traffic lights and youngsters distributing pamphlets. If campaign events are low-key, relative to the Indian

experience, they also give a closer sense of community - of everyone being able to participate in an important social process. It is not just the marriage hall venue that gives the event the semblance of a large family wedding. There are excited youngsters rushing all over the place while the elders have that

expression, of concern carefully masked by courtesy and bonhomie, of people who wish the event will go off well. Unlike the mass impersonal rallies that we are accustomed to in India here most people at the venue seem to know quite a number of the others.

Mr. Barak's first meeting of the evening is with a group of Russian immigrants. Opinion polls show that about 90 per cent of the 1 million recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union now back Mr. Sharon, but these Russians in Beersheva appear to be very firmly within the remaining 10 per cent. Mr. Barak's pointsman harangues them for a while but breaks off to let a choir of war veterans belt out a few numbers.

Some of the youngsters tentatively start a hora (the traditional Jewish dance) but stop with squeals of delight when Mr. Barak walks in promptly at 7.15 - the time set for his arrival. The rhythm of Israeli electoral politics does not perhaps allow for the crowding of too many events into the day but can anyone point out the last time an Indian politician, at whatever level, came to even his first meeting of the day on the set time.

With the music and the spontaneous clapping that greets Mr. Barak's arrival the scene is even more reminiscent of the situation where everyone's favourite relative turns up for the wedding. Mr. Barak spends the first ten minutes or so shaking hands and exchanging hugs and kisses. This is not a ``leader'' talking down to his audience but an active regular guy trying to convince his people. A short punchy speech later he is off to the adjacent venue where a more orderly group of Bedouin await him. From the televised images of a rally addressed by Mr. Sharon at the same time the atmosphere there does not seem to be very different - except that Mr. Sharon looks more like a grandfather while Mr. Barak carries an ``elder brother'' image.

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