Ultra-Orthodox endorse Sharon in Israel election

But there was more bad news for him on Sunday when YediothAhronoth newspaper published the cumulative results of an unorthodox opinion survey. For the past two months the daily has asked Israelis to "vote" in a mobile polling station.

This technique showed Sharon crushing Barak by 58.67 percent33.8 percent of votes cast by 7,675 people, of whom 7.53 percent put in a blank ballot, rejecting both candidates.

Barak won in only four of 32 districts, taking the Port cityof Haifa by 60.8 percent to Sharon’s 37 percent.

The decision by the Torah Sages Council of theultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism political faction to call on its community — about seven percent of the electorate — to back Sharon came as no surprise.

"There will be an unequivocal backing of the entire publicwho listens to the Torah Sages Council…to vote for Ariel Sharon," Moshe Gafni, a United Torah Judaism parliament member, told Israel Radio.

The party did not mention Sharon by name in its newspaperannouncement in ultra-Orthodox newspapers, simply urging supporters to vote for "the candidate who it can be hoped will not destroy the religious situation in the Holy Land".

SOLDIERS VOTE IN SNOW

In Army bases in Israel, soldiers began voting in rain andsnow on Sunday. Israel Radio said ballot boxes had to be brought to some Army camps in the Golan Heights by snowmobile.

Israeli troops assisting earthquake victims in India votedon Saturday. An election officer was to bring the ballot box back to Israel handcuffed to his arm in time for Tuesday’s count.

Less than 48 hours before polls opened in Israel, gunbattles erupted anew in the West Bank and Gaza Strip underscoring the violence that has plagued Barak’s government.

The Israeli Army said Palestinian gunmen fired on an Israelicar near the Jewish settlement of Beit El in the West Bank. No casualties were reported.

In the Gaza Strip the Army said it had shot and wounded aPalestinian trying to penetrate the Israel-Gaza border overnight. Palestinian hospital sources said no casualty had been admitted.

The campaign has been dominated by the four-month-oldPalestinian uprising against Israeli rule in which at least 317 Palestinians, 51 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have died.

Barak has come under fire for failing to halt the bloodshedor reach a peace deal to end Israel’s 52-year-old conflict with the Palestinians.

BARAK’S TEAM HOLD OUT HOPE

Barak and party loyalists remained optimistic there wasstill a chance to win the election against the odds.

"Anyone who thinks Arik (Sharon) has the election in the bagshould wait and see," cabinet minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told Israel’s Army Radio.

He said there was still a chance Israeli Arabs would setaside their anger over the killing of 13 Israeli Arabs at the start of the Palestinian uprising and turn out to vote, despite calls by some Israeli Arab leaders for a boycott.

"I am telling you that among the Arabs there is going to bea turnaround," Ben-Eliezer said, adding the Barak campaign was focusing its efforts in the last days of the campaign on getting traditional Left-wing voters to the polls.

Barak appealed to Israeli Arabs and Russian-speaking votersvia interviews on Russian and Arab television stations on Saturday.

Likud’s Sharon, who speaks a little Russian, also gaveinterviews to Russian television stations to try to convince Russian-speaking Israelis, who generally hold hawkish views on peace with the Palestinians, to vote for him.

Intheir interviews, Barak and Sharon said they soughtlasting peace with Palestinians, Barak by continuing negotiations, Sharon by first emphasising security.