JERUSALEM (EJP)—The Speaker of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, Yuli Edelstein, is to hold an emergency meeting Sunday to discuss the possibility of postponing Tuesday’s presidential election, in light of the sudden withdrawal Saturday of one of the two leading candidates, Labor MK Binyamin Ben-Eliezer from the race due to allegations of financial impropriety, the Times of Israel reported.
The meeting will take place with the heads of the Knesset factions, to decide whether to push off elections.
Ben-Eliezer, a former IDF general and Dfense Minister, announced he was withdrawing from the presidential race Saturday afternoon, less than 24 hours after police questioned him under caution over a loan he had received.
He denied any wrongdoing and said he had been “deliberately targeted”.
“From the moment I announced my candidacy for the post, there has been an incessant, timed campaign of smears and slander whose intention was to prevent me standing for the post of president. With a heavy heart, I have decided to withdraw from the race,” Ben-Eliezer said in his statement.
The election for Israel’s president, set for next Tuesday, is conducted by a secret ballot of Knesset members. The president serves a single, seven-year term.
The remaining candidates are former Supreme Court judge Dalia Dorner, MK Meir Sheetrit of the Kadima party, MK Reuven Rivlin of Likud- who is the frontrunner-, Noble Prize winning chemist Dan Schechtman and former Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik.