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West Asia ties hinge on poll outcome

Atul Aneja

Low turnout by Israeli standards in crucial parliamentary elections

— PHOTO: AP

MOMENTOUS ELECTION: Labour Party leader Amir Peretz, his wife Achlama (left), and daughter Shani, at a polling booth in Sderot, Israel, on Tuesday.

DUBAI: A low turnout on Tuesday marked Israel's crucial parliamentary elections, which is likely to define the country's relationship with the Palestinians for the next few years.

The Kadima party led by acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is leading opinion polls with centre-Left Labour in the second place and the Right wing Likud in the third position. Ailing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon formed the Kadima party last year after he broke ranks with the parent Likud party.

Opinion polls

According to opinion polls in the Yedioth Ahronoth and Maariv newspapers on Monday, Kadima was likely to win 34 of the 120 Knesset seats. The two dailies also stated that the Labour party would win about 19 seats, with 13 or 14 going to the Likud party.

The Right-wing nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party could battle the Likud for the third place. The 8,276 polling booths, many of which are set up in schools, opened at 7 a.m. local time. Polling was scheduled to close at 10 p.m. Voter turnout could touch a maximum of 66 per cent, which is low by Israeli standards.

While Kadima had been the favourite in opinion polls for some time, it would find it difficult to push forward its agenda if it got fewer than 40 seats. The party has been advocating a unilateral approach to settle Israel's permanent borders with the Palestinian territories. After the Gaza pullout under Mr. Sharon, Kadima has been talking about a pullout from only a few settlement outposts in the West Bank area, and annexing parts of Palestinian territory. The Palestinian are opposed to this plan, pointing out that a viable Palestinian state would be impossible within these territorial limits.

The Labour Party, during the campaign, focused more on social issues. The Likud under its leader Benjamin Netanyahu has opposed Kadima's unilateral plan as well as the past withdrawal from Gaza under Mr. Sharon.

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