Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party will name senior statesman and Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres as the party’s candidate for president, a senior government source said on Sunday.
”Kadima ministers have agreed to name Shimon Peres as the party’s candidate for the presidential election,” the source told Agence France-Presse.
President Moshe Katsav, who faces indictments for rape, sexual harassment and other charges, was granted a leave of absence from his post on Thursday.
Although Parliament cannot hold a fresh election for president until Katsav resigns or after his mandate runs out in July, speculation has already started on who could replace the disgraced head of state.
Peres, who lost to Katsav for the post in an upset election defeat in 2000, is so far the public’s favourite, with support of between 40% and 45% of Israelis, according to two opinion polls released on Thursday.
Although members of his entourage have said that Peres is interested in the president’s post, he has not officially thrown his hat in the ring.
The 83-year-old is regarded as Israel’s elder statesman, having served twice as premier, three times as foreign minister and three times as defence minister.
The Polish-born married father of three was one of the architects of the 1993 Oslo accords with the Palestinians, for which he shared the Nobel peace prize a year later with then premier Yitzak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Parliament speaker Dalia Yitzik is carrying out the president’s duties in the interim — the first woman president in the history of the Jewish state. — AFP
