PM pushes bill for open ballot in bid to back Peres for president

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ordered his staff to work for the passage of a bill to change the system of electing the president, in order to further the electoral prospects of Vice Premier Shimon Peres.

After Attorney General Menachem Mazuz decided in principle earlier this week to indict President Moshe Katsav for rape and other sexual offenses, Katsav asked the Knesset to allow him to suspend himself for three months, and on Thursday the Knesset did so. However, Katsav is widely expected to resign altogether, thereby triggering new elections, if he fails to persuade Mazuz to change his mind during a hearing.

Currently, the Knesset elects the president by secret ballot. However, Peres and Olmert both believe the vice premier's chances of winning would be better if the election were an open vote, which would deter MKs from breaking ranks with the coalition's candidate. Olmert, who wants Peres to be that candidate, therefore spoke to him by telephone last night and promised to throw his full weight behind the effort to get him elected.

MK Yoel Hasson (Kadima) has already submitted a bill to change the presidential balloting system, and in an effort to speed its adoption, the Ministerial Committee on Legislation will discuss it this Sunday. If, as expected, the committee approves it, that would constitute a coalition decision to support the bill.

Nevertheless, Olmert's associates are aware it will be difficult to get the necessary majority of 61 MKs to support the change. Currently, there is no majority for it, as several coalition MKs - including the entire Shas faction, parts of Labor and Yisrael Beiteinu and even some Kadima MKs - are opposed.

On Monday, the Kadima faction will discuss the bill, and Olmert's staff is hoping Mazuz's decision to indict Katsav will cause faction members who previously opposed changing the law to rethink their position. The draft indictment "creates a need to choose the next president in an open and transparent vote," argued one staffer.

Knesset sources said they believed that Kadima MKs, who unanimously backed Katsav's request to suspend himself during yesterday's Knesset House Committee meeting, did so to buy time to get Hasson's bill passed. Had Katsav instead either resigned or been ousted, presidential elections would have had to take place within 45 days, making it much harder to enact the change in time.

Peres and his people, for their part, have been trying to persuade Shas' spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, to support the amendment. Yosef is thought to back Peres' candidacy, in part to make up for Shas' role in Peres' loss to Katsav in the 2000 presidential election, and Peres aides are therefore hopeful the rabbi can be persuaded. Should Yosef back the bill, Shas MKs would follow suit.

Strategist Eyal Arad, who has been working to promote the bill and has met with several MKs, on Thursday predicted that the new public atmosphere created by the draft indictment against Katsav would enable the bill to pass. 'MKs will have to explain to the public why they are in favor of secret deals,' he explained. 'What will the Labor Party tell its voters? In the situation in which the presidency finds itself today, the public is expecting a corrective experience. On the basis of checks we have made, we believe there will be a majority for this.'

Arad is advising Peres not to run if the law is not changed, but Peres is widely expected to throw his hat in the ring regardless.

Peres also received another bit of good news on Thursday, when Knesset Speaker and Acting President Dalia Itzik announced she has no intention of vying for the post. There had been much speculation that she would run, and a three-month stint as acting president could provide her with a good launching pad for doing so.

Peres' main opposition, therefore, seems likely to be Likud MK Reuven Rivlin, a former Knesset speaker. Rivlin is a potentially formidable opponent, because he is well-liked by MKs from across the political spectrum.

Likud is also gearing up to lead the battle against changing the law. As its faction chairman, MK Gideon Sa'ar, argued on Thursday, 'It is brutal to change the rules of the game mid-game, solely to serve the political interests and needs of a particular candidate. This is personal legislation whose sole purpose is to achieve a particular political outcome.'

By Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondent