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Israeli Voters Begin to Cast Ballots to Elect Prime Minister
Israeli voters began Tuesday morning to cast ballots in a crucial prime ministerial election, which is expected to have a significant bearing on the Middle East peace process.
The 4.1 million voters will choose between Ehud Barak, the caretaker prime minister, and Ariel Sharon, leader of the right- wing opposition Likud party.
Analysts have predicted that the election could become Barak's waterloo because he trailed Sharon by 20 percentage points in opinion polls.
Israel has announced Tuesday a national holiday to enable the voters to go to about 8,000 polling stations across the country. Blockade has been imposed on the Palestinian self-rule West Bank and Gaza Strip. And police forces have been deployed in the polling stations to ensure the election goes without incidents.
Barak resigned on December 10 after 18 months in office, amid bloody clashes between Israeli troops and the Palestinians, triggered by Sharon's provocative visit to an Islamic holy site in East Jerusalem on September 28.
Barak won election in 1999 on a platform of "reaching peace of the brave" but has so far failed to achieve the goal. He has been blamed for being unable to contain the spiral of violence, which has left more than 340 Palestinians and 39 Israelis dead. He has also been criticized for making too many concessions to the Palestinians in the peace negotiations.
Preliminary results of the election are expected on Tuesday. But official announcement reportedly will not come out before February 14.
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