Rift widens between Netanyahu and Peres over presidential elections

Disagreements between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres have increased against the backdrop of Netanyahu’s intention to postpone the presidential elections and unconfirmed reports that the prime minister was considering abolishing the post of the presidency.

Peres stressed that he is opposed to the idea of postponing the presidential elections and threatened that he would not stay in office for one day after the end of his presidential term, which means that the position would become vacant until a new legislation on the issue has been issued.

Peres criticised Netanyahu’s initiative to postpone the presidential elections during a reception held in the president’s honour at the Oslo Synagogue in Norway.

Netanyahu said he will continue at the Knesset to push forward his initiative to postpone the presidential elections for six months, sources close to the prime minister told Israeli media.

This idea has been by the fact that the leaders of blocs constituting the government coalition have not publicly expressed their opposition to the idea of postponing the election, the sources added.

Israeli Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar unveiled Netanyahu’s intention to seek to abolish the institution of the presidency and postpone the next presidential elections.

In remarks that he wrote on his Facebook page, Sa’ar expressed his strong opposition to the idea of postponing the election: “You do not change the rules in the middle of the game.”

Netanyahu’s stance regarding the institution of the presidency comes a few days after his office issued a statement denying Peres’ allegations that the latter had reached understandings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas three years ago.