Katzav shocks Peres to become Israeli president

"I see the results, my friends, first of all as an expression of the desire of the elected officials to unify the Israeli people," Katzav said in a victory speech. "I will be the faithful representative of all the Israeli people."

Looking glum, Peres, 76, reacted with a terse statement to reporters, saying: "At this moment, the only thing I have to say is to congratulate Moshe Katzav on his election as president. I wish him success and all the best."

After the results were announced, Katzav’s supporters raised their arms in delight and hugged each other in the Knesset. Peres’s political allies shook their heads and sat stunned in their seats.

Katzav, a member of the main opposition Likud party, will be Israel’s eighth president and inaugurated on Tuesday evening.

The post is largely ceremonial because most power lies with Prime Minister Ehud Barak, but the president has a platform from which to wield some influence.

Political commentators said in an initial reaction that Katzav’s victory was unlikely to have a major impact on the Prime Minister’s peace policies.

But Likud Chief Ariel Sharon said Peres’s loss sent a signal to Barak that "the nationalist camp" had strengthened ahead of a parliamentary no-confidence vote later in the day over his peace policies.

"(The election) was an expression of dissatisfaction over Barak’s policies and promises which he made and broke one by one," Sharon told reporters. "What happened today shows that the days of this failed government are numbered."

Likud takes a harder line than Barak over peace talks with the Palestinians and has criticised the Prime Minister’s readiness to make concessions at the recent Camp David peace summit.

Peres’s chances of victory in the secret parliamentary ballot had seemed to receive a boost early on Monday from the rabbis of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas party who allowed Shas deputies to vote as they please.

Katzav had hoped the rabbis would instruct all 17 Shas deputies to vote for him. But he may have won many or all their votes anyway because he is, like them, a Sephardic Jew of Arabic origins and is closer to their religious beliefs than Peres.

Katzav is little known abroad but has been involved in National politics for 23 years since he first became a member of parliament. His top position until now had been deputy Prime Minister and he also headed the tourism and transport ministries.

He is less controversial and less outspoken than Peres, whose forthright views have earned him political enemies as well as friends, and this may ultimately have propelled Katzav to victory.

Katzav is widely considered less likely to meddle in the government’s everyday affairs than Peres.

It was yet another defeat at the ballot box for Peres.

Although he was Prime Minister from 1984-86 and 1995-96, Peres failed to win an election outright in five tries from 1977 to 1996.

On the first occasion he was Prime Minister, Peres was installed in a power-sharing agreement. The second time he succeeded slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Public opinion polls had showed Peres the clear favourite among Israelis to succeed Ezer Weizman in the increasingly vocal post of president. Weizman, 76, stepped down early because of a money scandal.