Sharon calling general election within 90 days

11.00pm

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today called an early general election for February after failing to form a new right-wing coalition government.

He said his desire to preserve Israel's "special relationship" with the White House was a main consideration in deciding not to press ahead with efforts to woo ultranationalist parties into his minority government.

"I will dissolve the Knesset and call general elections within 90 days," he told a news conference. "The date is one of the first days of February."

A defiant Sharon said he had refused to give in to "political extortion" while courting partners for the narrow coalition he had hoped to form after the centre-left Labour Party bolted the 20-month-old "unity government" last week.

Labour abandoned its partnership with Sharon in a dispute over funding for Jewish settlements on occupied lands where Palestinians want to establish a state.

Sharon said he had made "the responsible choice" and "opted for the lesser of two evils" by deciding to go to new elections.

He had tried to enlist the far-right National Union-Yisrael Beitenu party into the minority government, which would have restored the parliamentary majority he lost when Labour left.

But National Union-Yisrael Beitenu had sought a change in government guidelines that have included accepting US President George W. Bush's vision of Palestinian statehood.

"I will not stray from the responsible policy of the government, change its guidelines or damage the deep strategic agreements with the United States or the special relationship my government...has achieved with the White House," Sharon told the news conference.

Israel last held a general election in 1999 and a new one was due under law by October 2003.

Under a system that has since been scrapped, Sharon was elected in a separate prime ministerial ballot in February 2000, pledging to end a Palestinian uprising against statehood - now in its third year.

Sharon formally set the election process into motion by holding surprise talks early on Tuesday with Israeli President Moshe Katzav and winning his approval for an early ballot.

Once Katzav issues a written decree dissolving parliament, Sharon's administration becomes a caretaker government that no member can quit until after election day.

Legislators retain their seats in the transition parliament, which can be called into session by the cabinet, with a vote on Israel's contentious 2003 state budget pending.

Political commentators have forecast that Sharon's Likud Party would do well in a general election, buoyed by a shift to the right in Israel in response to Palestinian suicide bombings.

But first Sharon and Labour head Binyamin Ben-Eliezer face internal elections in their respective parties.

Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who side-stepped Sharon's offer to become foreign minister after Labour bolted, is widely expected to challenge him for the Likud leadership in the internal election, whose date has yet to be set.

Labour members elect a leader and prime ministerial candidate on November 19. Ben-Eliezer is trailing in opinion polls behind two dovish challengers, former general Amram Mitzna and veteran Labour politician Haim Ramon.

On Monday, Sharon won a tenuous lease on life for his minority government, surviving parliamentary no-confidence votes that coincided with a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed two people in a shopping mall.

Sharon defeated the no-confidence motions with the help of National Union-Yisrael Beitenu, but the party made clear its support was only temporary and it sought an early poll.

Palestinians had expressed alarm that an Israeli government dominated by right-wing nationalists would be ideologically opposed to a Palestinian state and would use harsher methods to crush their two-year-old uprising in the West Bank and Gaza.

At least 1645 Palestinians and 623 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian revolt began in September 2000 after peace talks focusing on a Palestinian state foundered.

- REUTERS

Further reading
Feature: Middle East

Related links