Report: Livni to call for snap elections

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-26 11:15

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni will announce on Sunday her decision to call for an early general election, Israeli news service Ynet reported Saturday night.

Israel's Foreign Minister and Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni (L) and Speaker of the Parliament Dalia Itzik attend a Kadima party gathering in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv October 23, 2008. [Xinhua]

The woman leader of the ruling Kadima party is scheduled to meet with President Shimon Peres on Sunday, when the report said she will inform the latter that she has failed to form a new coalition and propose to hold snap elections.

The current foreign minister, who legally has nine days to cobble together a new government, made her decision following intense consultations with her advisors and close associates over the weekend, said the report, adding that she fears her image could be undermined should she continue to engage in negotiations and face political extortion attempts by potential coalition partners.

On Friday, Israel's third largest party by number of parliamentary seats, the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, announced that it would not join a Livni-led cabinet, giving a strong blow to Livni's cabinet-making efforts and drastically crushing her hope to build a wide ruling coalition.

Following Shas' boycott, Livni might still manage to secure a parliamentary majority, although thinner, with some smaller parties, as talks with them seem bearing fruit. Yet Shas has vowed to vote against such a cabinet, and some Kadima lawmakers has also voiced their opposition.

Earlier this month, Kadima initialed a coalition agreement with the second largest party Labor. However, Labor chief Ehud Barak, reported local daily Ha'aretz, has told Livni that a narrow coalition would be problematic.

By law, should Livni fail in her cabinet-making task, Peres might assign the mission to a second and even a third lawmaker. If all the efforts go futile, the parliament will automatically dissolve itself, and snap elections will be held within 90 days.

Should Israel go to an early general election, recent polls showed that the current main opposition party Likud would become the biggest winner, while a latest survey also found that the three-year-old Kadima would possibly win with a wafer-thin edge over Likud.

The political turmoil in Israel casts a shadow over its peace talks with the Palestinians. Palestinian officials have been complaining that Israel's political uncertainty represents a major blockade along the already sluggish peace process.

Little tangible progress has been achieved since the Palestinian and Israeli leaders promised last November to reach a comprehensive peace deal within 2008, and an early general election might blow away any remaining hope for the two neighbors to realize that ambitious goal.

Till the next government is established, outgoing premier Ehud Olmert, who has been enveloped in a series of corruption and fraud scandals, will remain in power with his caretaker cabinet.