Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Moshe Katzav, a one-time contender for the leadership of the Likud party, were named Monday as candidates for the Israeli presidency, reported The Associated Press.
Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg announced the two candidates of the two largest parties - Peres, for Prime Minister Ehud Barak's One Israel, and Katsav, for the Likud.
The vote by the 120 members of the Knesset will take place on July 31st, said the AP.
The previous president, Ezer Weizman, resigned on July 10th in the wake of a scandal in which he admitted receiving more than $350,000 from a French textile magnate.
Although the case was closed, the attorney general ruled Weizman had acted improperly, said the agency.
Were the election held by popular vote, the 77-year-old Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate with impressive achievements throughout Israel's 52-year history, would win easily, opinion polls indicate, according to the AP.
Peres is credited with taming hyperinflation in Israel and ending the Lebanon war during his 1984-86 term as prime minister.
He also served as prime minister after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, narrowly losing to Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996.
However, the government coalition has lost its majority in the Knesset and many members are opposed to the Oslo interim agreement with the Palestinians, of which Peres was an architect.
Three parties quit the government on the eve of Barak's departure for the Camp David summit.
Even so, Peres has been regarded as the leading contender for the largely ceremonial post, according to the agency.
Katsav, 54, who has held second-grade Cabinet posts in Likud administrations, lacks an international reputation and has said that if elected he would avoid politics and devote himself to fostering domestic unity, the AP noted.
If the Camp David talks continue until July 31st, Peres will lack the votes of Barak and the other Cabinet ministers and legislators who are with him at the summit.
Burg has ruled out any postponement of the election, the AP added.
The duties of Israel's president are limited mostly to presiding at functions, although the president has the power to pardon convicted criminals and to name judges, according to the agency - Albawaba.com
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
