Last update - 00:00 03/06/2007
Shas to determine soon which presidential candidate to back
By Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondent
Shas will determine soon which presidential candidate to vote for - Vice Premier Shimon Peres (Kadima) or Likud MK Reuven Rivlin - on the basis of the lists of supporters that has been submitted by each candidate.
Industry, Trade and Employment Minister Eli Yishai is to examine the lists in order to determine which Shas members support which candidate.
Senior Shas officials said that, as with the previous campaign in 2000, in which Peres lost to Moshe Katsav, Yishai and other senior officials would check with every person on the lists and not depend only on the list the candidates have submitted.
The officials said Shas is leaning toward Peres. However, the party also wants to support the winner and be seen as holding the deciding vote in the campaign.
The officials said that if support for Peres and Rivlin is equal, Shas will vote for Peres.
Peres' presidential campaign has been called "the last-time campaign," after Peres himself said this would likely be his last campaign when he announced his candidacy Wednesday.
Peres' associates have been phoning MKs and relaying this message. One MK, who intends to vote for Colette Avital (Labor), said after he received such a call that he was told to vote for Peres in order to spare the vice premier yet another election humiliation.
Avital said yesterday on Channel 2's Meet the Press that the Peres campaign was pushing her to drop out of the race and back the vice premier.
Avital said pressure had also come from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
She said she had given various offers in order to compensate her for dropping out, including an appointment as deputy foreign minister.
The Labor candidate said she had refused and would continue her bid for the presidency through a second round if necessary.