Israeli opposition in key vote

Israel's Kadima was on Tuesday choosing a new leader who will seek to revive the centrist opposition party ahead of general elections due next year, with pundits predicting a very tight race. Tuesday's primaries pit Kadima's current leader and former foreign minister Tzipi Livni against her deputy, Shaul Mofaz, an Iranian-born former army chief-of-staff who once held the defence portfolio. The party's 95,000 members began voting at 104 polling stations around the country when the polls opened at 10am (0800 GMT). Six hours later, turnout stood at 14.9 per cent, with polls due to close at 10pm (2000 GMT), officials said. Kadima is currently the largest party in parliament, holding 28 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, but a series of recent polls suggest the faction is likely to see that number halved in the next elections which are officially tabled for October 2013. But rumours of an early election are rife, with observers speculating they could take place before the end of this year, despite denials by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who heads the right-wing Likud party. Kadima's current leader is a one-time Mossad spy who has risen quickly within the political sphere to become Israel's most powerful woman. Her challenger, Mofaz, has a wealth of political and military experience and currently heads the powerful parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and defence. The two last faced off during a very close leadership race in September 2008 which Livni won by just over 400 votes, replacing scandal-plagued premier Ehud Olmert as leader. While most Israeli commentators were unsure who would win the race, they were unanimous that the primary vote was likely to mark the end of Kadima as Israel's biggest party, saying the outcome would see it split apart. "These are fateful internal elections for a party that immediately after them will have to fight for the right to again be a ruling alternative under difficult conditions," Mazal Mualem wrote in the Maariv daily. "If it splits, it may shrink to single-digit seats in the next elections." The top-selling Yediot Aharonot took a similar view, saying that after the vote, the party would never be the same. "For some time Kadima has not been an alternative to the government. According to the polls, its public standing -- whether headed by Livni or by Mofaz -- is at a nadir," the paper said. "It is the largest party in the Knesset, and it has zero influence," it added, noting that whoever takes the helm will have to try and restore Kadima to its former standing. "With Livni or with Mofaz, it is highly doubtful that that is possible." Livni herself said on Tuesday that the contest was not simply a fight between her and Mofaz but about two camps with differing ideologies, with her rival prepared to take the party into Netanyahu's right-wing coalition. "The story is not me and him, it is a question of principle: whether Kadima is an alternative to the Netanyahu government or should be part of it at any price," she told reporters in Tel Aviv as she cast her vote. "It's a huge difference." But voting in the nearby town of Kfar Saba, Mofaz said that under his leadership, Kadima would topple Netanyahu. "The Kadima primaries are a vote on the future, on the character and the values of the state of Israel," he said. "At the end of this day, Kadima will set out on a new path as an alternative to the poor government of Netanyahu. I intend to win at the general elections and to replace Netanyahu." Kadima was founded in November 2005 by former prime minister Ariel Sharon who took leave of his political home in Likud after his controversial decision to pull all settlers and troops out of the Gaza Strip. It has since grown to become Israel's largest party, but has taken a hammering in the polls over what commentators say has been a failure to present a concrete alternative to Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition.