ISRAEL: Likud's Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu cast his vote to determine list ahead of upcoming elections, while three cabinet ministers resign

Record ID: 398571

  • Title: ISRAEL: Likud's Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu cast his vote to determine list ahead of upcoming elections, while three cabinet ministers resign
  • Date: 13th January 2006
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF YOUTHS DISTRIBUTING FLYERS QUEUE; YOUTH CAHNTING
  • Embargoed: 28th January 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA63BDD8XPUOX7VAQ9IZCOFI5SL
  • Story Text: Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu voted on Thursday (January 12), to determine the list of the rightist party's candidates to run in a March 28 general election, while three of the Likud's four cabinet ministers have resigned under his order. Despite the heavy rain, long queues extended outside a Tel Aviv polling station throughout the day, as young Likud activists distributed flyers to support their candidates. Netanyahu's resignation order, most likely to be implemented on Sunday (January 15), had been put on hold after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke last week. The resignations will have no direct impact on the viability of Israel's caretaker government, led by interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, ahead of the upcoming elections. The party released a written statement, saying Netanyahu had handed over the letters of resignation to the cabinet secretariat in Jerusalem. Education Minister Limor Livnat, Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz and Health Minister Danny Naveh agreed to Netanyahu's demand to quit on Thursday (January 12) to distance the Likud from policies now set by Sharon's new centrist Kadima party. "This resignation will definitely be carried out, as I kept on saying before. There is no doubt that as soon as the Likud chairman reaches a decision I will carry it out, and I believe so will my colleagues, except it can not be executed this morning (but Sunday). Netanyahu is the head of the Likud, this decision will surely take place," Livnat said when she arrived at the station Likud, Israel's dominant party for much of the past three decades, has fallen into disarray since Sharon's departure in November, and pre-election opinion polls show it trailing Kadima badly. The three ministers had initially signalled resistance to the order issued by Netanyahu, a former prime minister. A fourth Likud cabinet member, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, was expected to delay his resignation until Sunday in a sign of defiance towards Netanyahu, whom he had fought for the party leadership last month. Seeking to assert his authority, Netanyahu, who succeeded Sharon as Likud chief, had ordered the party's four ministers to quit on Thursday morning, shortly before the party began voting for a list of election candidates. Israeli political commentators had said earlier that the ministers were resisting because they wanted to show they could not be bullied by Netanyahu. Shalom's defiance threw a spotlight on infighting in the rightist Likud ahead of the March 28 general election. Opinion polls predict the Likud will finish behind Kadima and centre-left Labour. Cabinet resignations go into effect after 48 hours. Olmert can appoint new ministers to serve until the March 28 ballot. The Likud dispute got top billing in radio news bulletins, a sign of renewed national focus on the upcoming election after days of wall-to-wall coverage of Sharon's condition. Sharon, who suffered a massive stroke last week likely to prevent him from leading Israel again, quit Likud in the face of a rebellion by Netanyahu and other party hardliners over a Gaza pullout completed last September. Olmert, Sharon's likely successor as head of Kadima, got a boost from polls showing the party would crush its rivals in the March election even without the incapacitated prime minister. The polls suggest Likud might win as few as 13 seats in the 120-member parliament, a steep drop from its current But some commentators said the findings had been skewed by sympathy for Sharon that could diminish over time. Netanyahu hopes to revive Likud's chances by painting himself as an experienced leader with strong security credentials for handling conflict with the Palestinians. But party divisions could undercut that effort.
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