Livni voted in as leader of Israel's ruling party
Thursday, 18 Sep 2008 19:03
Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni elected as leader of country's ruling Kadima party (Image licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License)
Israel/Palestine In Focus
Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni has been elected as the leader of the country's ruling Kadima party.
The former Mossad agent has 42 days to get governing coalition allies on side to avoid a snap election and become Israel's second female prime minister.
She replaces Ehud Olmert as leader of Kadima after the scandal-hit leader said he would resign amid corruption allegations.
Ms Livni, 50, won 43.1 per cent of the vote in yesterday's leadership election among Kadima voters, with transport minister Shaul Mofaz just 431 votes behind on 42 per cent.
In her victory speech in the early hours of the morning she thanked Kadima voters for their faith, and pledged to win over the rest of the country's voters.
"I will start tomorrow to meet representatives of the other parties in the Knesset to a form a new coalition as quickly as possible in the face of the serious threats," she said.
"I will do my utmost not to disappoint you. I want to do what's best for the country."
Kadima, which said 50 per cent of its 74,000 members voted in the election, is forecast to lose out in parliament to Likud should a coalition bid collapse.
Ms Livni is bidding to become Israel's first female prime minister since Golda Meir left office in 1974.
She is also only the second woman after Ms Meir to hold a foreign affairs brief in Israel's male-dominated political scene.