Ehud Olmert has agreed to step down as Israeli prime minister if he is not re-elected as leader of his Kadima party. Under terms of a deal between Olmert and his biggest rival, foreign minister Tzipi Livni, the party will hold a leadership election before 25 September. Should Olmert be ousted as Kadima leader, his successor would become the prime minister of a new government by November, political analysts in Israel said.
Olmert is widely expected to try to run for reelection as party leader, though he has not confirmed this. However, the newspaper ‘Ha'aretz’ reported on Thursday that he would step down. The Kadima primaries were agreed following a power struggle last month between Olmert, who is under investigation following allegations of corruption, and defense minister Ehud Barak, whose Labor Party is Kadima's biggest coalition partner. Barak has signaled that he would agree to stay in the government under Livni as prime minister.
Meanwhile, according to an opinion poll published on Friday by the newspaper ‘Yedioth Ahronot’, 57 per cent of registered Kadima voters believe the prime minister should not take part in the leadership primaries, while 79 per cent believe he should resign amid corruption allegations. Olmert is expected to be questioned by police for the third time soon regarding the hundreds of thousands of dollars he allegedly received over a 15-year period from Jewish-American businessman Morris Talansky.
