- Title: ISRAEL-ELECTION/LIVNI VOTING Israel's centrist Livni votes in Tel Aviv
- Date: 17th March 2015
- Summary: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (MARCH 17, 2015) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** SUPPORTERS OF CO-LEADER OF THE CENTRE-LEFT ZIONIST UNION AND FORMER ISRAELI JUSTICE MINISTER TZIPI LIVNI WAVING FLAGS LIVNI ARRIVES AT POLLING STATION, SPEAKING TO MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (English) CO-LEADER OF THE CENTRE-LEFT ZIONIST UNION, TZIPI LIVNI, SAYING: "It is the same partnership, it
- Embargoed: 1st April 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA7YK8U5QMQNIE1XF9E6L8HIPBG
- Story Text: Co-leader of the centre-left Zionist Union and former Israeli justice minister and chief peace negotiator with the Palestinians Tzipi Livni voted in general election on Tuesday (March 17) in Tel Aviv.
Fired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in December after cabinet infighting over government policies, Livni, a centrist, seemed destined for the political wilderness until she struck the partnership deal with the head of the Labour Party Isaac Herzog with both originally agreeing to a two-year rotation as prime minister should the party form the next government.
But in the last-minute election-eve gambit, Livni said on Monday (March 16) that she would be ready to give up a rotation agreement should it turn out to be an problem in future government.
"It is the same partnership, it is the same rotation, I just said the obvious for me that this would not be an obstacle to form another government and to change Netanyahu's government," she explained at the polling station.
Polls predict that the Herzog-Livni list, the Zionist Union, will take 24 to 26 seats in the 120-member parliament, compared with 20 to 22 for Netanyahu's Likud.
A leading advocate of a two-state solution with the Palestinians, Livni, 56, has pledged to seek ways to resume peace talks and repair ties with the U.S. administration.
Livni came into politics in the 1990s, following a stint in the Mossad intelligence service while she was a student in Paris.
From a well-known ultranationalist family, she worked as a corporate attorney before politics.
Livni drew international attention as foreign minister in former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's cabinet from 2006 to 2009, in which she unsuccessfully pursued a land-for-peace deal with the Palestinians. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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