Region | Palestinian Territories
Livni elected leader of Israel's ruling party, eyes PM post
Tzipi Livni was narrowly elected leader of Israel's ruling party and vowed on Thursday to start work immediately on forming a new coalition that will let her succeed the scandal-hit Ehud Olmert as prime minister.
- Agencies
- Published: 09:00 September 18, 2008
- Image Credit: Bloomberg
Occuppied Jerusalem: Tzipi Livni was narrowly elected leader of Israel's ruling party and vowed on Thursday to start work immediately on forming a new coalition that will let her succeed the scandal-hit Ehud Olmert as prime minister.
After a tense night of counting following exit polls that showed the foreign minister cruising to a big win, officials said the final margin over Shaul Mofaz, a former general who is now transport minister, was just over one percentage point.
The final result was a relief to Livni, a 50-year-old lawyer, who had declared victory to supporters hours earlier.
"The good guys won," the one-time Mossad intelligence agent had told her backers within the centrist Kadima party.
Party spokesman Shmuel Dahan put the final result at 43.1 percent for Livni to 42.0 percent for Mofaz- a huge swing from the 10- to 12-point margins shown in exit polls. Two other candidates trailed well behind.
"On the level of government in Israel, we have to deal with difficult threats," Livni told reporters outside her Tel Aviv home at dawn after an anxious night of waiting for the count.
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