KNESSET TO ELECT ISRAEL’S NEXT FIGUREHEAD PRESIDENT

Wed 02 June 2021:

The Israeli parliament will vote on Wednesday to elect a new president who will replace 81-year-old Reuven Rivlin in this largely symbolic post.

The 120 Knesset members will vote in a secret ballot for either Jewish Agency chairman Isaac Herzog, is a former opposition leader and head of the world’s largest Jewish nonprofit called the Jewish Agency for Israel. whose father, Chaim Herzog, served as Israel’s sixth president; or Israel Prize-winning educator Miriam Peretz, 67, is a lecturer on Zionism. who would become Israel’s first woman president if elected.

Rivlin is not eligible to run again after serving seven years in office.

His term expires on July 9. His successor will inherit a deadlocked nation that has had four inconclusive elections in two years.

The president’s main job is to hold consultations with party leaders after legislative elections and select a candidate who will try and form a new government.

A coalition of a centrist and a small far-right party has recently emerged, looking to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu. They have until June 23 to form a new government, failing which a fifth election will be called.

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