On July 31, 2000, then-justice minister Yossi Beilin sat in his spacious office on Saladin Street in East Jerusalem and followed the reports from the Knesset on the presidential race between Moshe Katsav and Shimon Peres. Beilin, who had resigned just a few months earlier from the Knesset, waited for the publication of the results of the secret ballot to congratulate Peres on his election. He had not the slightest doubt that Peres would win the race; all of the prior checks and surveys that had been carried out by Peres' headquarters headed by Haim Ramon indicated an unambiguous victory.

When Beilin heard on the radio that, in the first round of voting, 60 Knesset members had supported Katsav and only 57 had supported Peres, he was stunned. "I couldn't believe my ears," recalls Beilin admitting that this failure was harder for him than all of Peres' previous searing failures - in the internal race against Yitzhak Rabin in 1992 and in the elections for prime minister against Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996 - perhaps because of the large gap in the two candidates' abilities and qualifications.

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A tiny hope rekindled when it emerged that it was necessary to hold another round of voting, because by law the winning candidate must be elected by a majority of at least 61 votes. He thought maybe a few Knesset members would come to their senses at the last minute and change their votes. But this did not happen.

When the final count tallied 63 votes for Katsav and 57 for Peres, Peres' camp gathered in his office at the Knesset to cheer him up. They were surprised to find that Peres had already recovered from the blow, but they could not shake off a profound sense of betrayal: Knesset members had promised to vote for Peres, but took advantage of the secrecy of the ballot to give their vote to Katsav.

They concluded it was necessary to act immediately to amend The Basic Law on the President so that the vote would take place in the Knesset plenum in an open vote.

Beilin, despite a decades-long warm relationship with Peres and despite his strong desire for Peres to be elected president, is vehemently opposed to this initiative: "In any race that is held in the Knesset, I will of course support Peres. His election as president will bring a lot of honor to Israel compared to all of the other candidates whom the election would make important. There is no doubt the office of the number one citizen, which has taken harsh criticism in recent years, needs such a personality," says Beilin.

"But it isn't possible to change the rules of the game after the game has already begun, even if not officially," he continues. "Kadima has stated that it sees Peres as its candidate, Likud and Shas have declared their support for [Likud MK Reuven] Rivlin and the Labor Party has decided to support [Labor MK] Colette Avital. If they change the rules now all of a sudden, this will do harm to an unwritten constitutional principle."

Beilin also believes that if they change the voting method, the opposition will no longer be able to bring about the election of its candidate for president, the way Haim Herzog defeated the coalition candidate Justice Professor Menachem Elon in 1983 in a secret ballot (by a majority of 61 to 57 MKs).

"I see great importance in opposition candidates also being elected to official positions and not just representatives of the coalition. Only in a secret ballot could MK Haim Oron of Meretz, for example, be elected speaker of the Knesset. An open vote will entirely thwart opposition representatives' chances of being elected, because the election of the president will become part of the coalition negotiations and the agreement among the parties, just as today they reach an agreement that a coalition partner will have a representative to the committee for the selection of judges. Coalition members will not be able to vote in accordance with their conscience because coalition discipline will be imposed on them."

Peres can also defeat those who are running against him in a secret ballot, says Beilin, warning that "no one can assess in advance what the results would be of a change in the voting method." When asked what he would do if he found out that Peres would withdraw his candidacy if the method was not changed, Beilin replied: "Even then I will not change my mind."

No shticks, no deals

Beilin's faction colleague MK Zahava Gal-On does support a change in the voting method, but not now, and Peres' appearance before Meretz members to persuade them to support an open vote at this time did not change her mind. "In principle, I am in favor of an open vote because I support transparency, but it is not right to change the rules of the game after the names of the candidates have been made public," she explains. "If they propose that the change come into effect in the presidential elections in 2013, I will support that."

President Moshe Katsav informed the High Court of Justice yesterday that he would resign from his position only after Attorney General Menachem Mazuz published his decision to file an indictment against him. The assessment is that Mazuz will publish his decision only after Katsav is given a hearing, which could go on for three months - that is, if indeed Mazuz decides to file an indictment, Katsav will resign only in April (just three months before the official end of his term, in July 2007). In that case, according to the law, elections for the next president will be held 45 days later, in the middle of May 2007.

Labor Party Knesset faction chairman MK Yoram Marciano, who was among the initiators of one of the legislative proposals to change the voting procedure, removed his name from the proposal because Gal-On convinced him it was not proper to make the change on the eve of the election of a new president. "In principle I'm convinced that we have to carry out this change to put an end to all the shticks and deals that we knew in the Peres-Katsav race," he says, stressing that in any case if an amendment to the law comes before the Knesset he will vote in favor of it.

MK Yoel Hasson (Kadima) who has submitted another proposal for an open vote, notes that the Knesset currently lacks a majority to approve the amendment, but he does believe that if the ministerial committee on legislation decides next week to approve the proposal, this will have an effect on all the elements in the coalition, and it will then be possible to advance the amendment.

MK Hasson denies he has initiated the law proposal to help Peres' election as president. "This proposal was born at my initiative and at Peres' initiative. It could be that the amendment will serve Peres, but the considerations that guided me had strictly to do with the matter itself. I did not like the method by which they elected the number one citizen."

Senior officials in Kadima who are working towards Peres' election have drawn encouragement in recent days from the fact that Housing and Construction Minister Meir Sheetrit will no longer serve as chairman of the ministerial committee on legislation (in the wake of the end of his service as acting justice minister and the temporary appointment of Minister Without Portfolio Jacob Edery to the position). At the beginning of the month, Sheetrit opposed approving the draft law, and thus a tie emerged in the committee's voting.

Voting in favor of the amendment were Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson, Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter and Environmental Protection Minister Gideon Ezra, all Kadima members, as well as Health Minister Yacov Ben Yizri (of the Pensioners Party). Voting against the amendment were Sheetrit (Kadima), Minister Without Portfolio Eitan Cabel and Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog (both of the Labor Party) and Minister Without Portfolio Meshulam Nahari (Shas).

If a majority for approving the proposal is also not obtained at the additional discussion of the ministerial committee, which will apparently be held this coming Sunday, Kadima members are planning to appeal the decision to the government plenum, in which they estimate there is a majority for its approval. Kadima members believe that if the government approves the amendment, the decision will obligate all elements of the coalition, and it will then be possible to ensure a majority in the Knesset plenum vote.

However, even so, there is no certainty, because in the coalition agreement it is explicitly stated that any amendment of Basic Laws necessitates the agreement of all of the elements in the coalition, and the Labor and Shas factions are opposed to holding an open vote for the election of the president.

The rules of the game

Close associates of MK Reuven Rivlin, who is one of the leading candidates for the presidency, are making no bones of their resentment at the initiative to change the Basic Law on the President only to promote Peres' chances. They have noted that there is no majority in the Knesset for holding an open vote because the Labor, Shas, Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu and Meretz factions, as well part of the Pensioners Party, are opposed to the amendment. One of Rivlin's associates has said that "if the law proposal for holding an open vote is approved, we will propose stipulating by law that it is the prime minister who will appoint the president and not the Knesset."

Sources both inside and outside the Knesset who are enthusiastically supporting an open vote, are saying that according to public opinion surveys the majority of the Israeli public supports an open vote in order to prevent deals behind the scenes like those that were revealed at the time of Katsav's election as president.

They reject the argument that it is not appropriate to change the rules of the game at this time.

"The game hasn't started yet. It will start only after the date of the race is determined and the names of the candidates are presented, and therefore the Knesset is entitled to amend the law and determine that the vote will be open, just as the Knesset in its day determined to raise the threshold of votes for a faction to enter the Knesset for the elections that happened afterwards," say these elements. They stress that "the fact that the last two presidents, Ezer Weizman and Moshe Katsav, who were chosen by secret ballots, were not worthy of filling this lofty position indicates even more forcefully the need to change the system to ensure that a worthy individual like Shimon Peres is elected president."