Kadima agrees to September primary; Olmert unlikely to run

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will not run for the Kadima leadership despite his statements to the contrary, Olmert's associates in the party predicted Wednesday.

The associates said the prime minister understands that his chances of swaying public opinion back in his favor are minimal and that he is unable to stop the move to oust him in his own party.

"Olmert has realized that even if he does contend for the leadership, Kadima's people won't support him because they see how badly he is doing in the polls. He has used the party until now as a bullet-proof vest, but there's a limit," a Kadima source said.

Olmert's aides said Wednesday that he has not decided yet whether to run for the leadership and will make that decision in August, a few weeks before the primary.

They said Olmert will not attend Kadima's council meeting, which is expected to start the move to oust him, due to another commitment. "That's the official explanation. Understandably he does not want to take part in a meeting intended to oust him," an associate said.

Olmert withheld his approval of the council's draft resolution until Wednesday evening, after ministers Tzipi Livni, Shaul Mofaz and Avi Dichter, who intend to run for Kadima's leadership, had approved it.

Olmert was finally forced to agree, with MK Tzachi Hanegbi's mediation, to change the party regulations so that the first primary round would be held between September 14 and 18 and the second round, if required, would be held by September 25.

He also agreed that whoever is elected Kadima's leader would be the party's candidate for prime minister in the next elections and that no other primary would be held.

Until Wednesday, Olmert had made efforts to bring to the council a proposal to hold the primary in September and to elect only an acting party chairman, with the intention of stalling until after Talansky's cross-examination next week before setting the primary date.

Associates of Livni, Mofaz and Dichter said they believed Olmert would abide by the decision of Kadima's registered members.

Until Wednesday, Olmert tried to make adjustments to the rules governing Kadima that would keep him in his post until the next elections for the Knesset, even if a different candidate wins the party's September primary, Kadima sources said.

Olmert made efforts to include a condition in the Kadima regulations that whoever wins the primary will be the party's candidate for prime minister in the following parliamentary elections, leaving Olmert to complete his tenure in power.

By this maneuver, Olmert believed he would block the creation of an alternative cabinet without him after the primary.

Olmert met earlier this week with the head of the Kadima Council, Meir Nitzan, to discuss the council meeting scheduled for today. The council will discuss issues including the adoption of the agreement with the Labor Party, Kadima's main coalition partner, under which Kadima will hold a primary on September 25.