Sharon asks Israel's president for snap election
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-11-21 16:46

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asked Israel's president on Monday to dissolve parliament, opening the way for a snap election that he hopes to win as head of a new centrist party.

Israeli President Moshe Katsav speaks at a news conference after his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the President's residence in Jerusalem November 21, 2005. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asked Israel's president on Monday to dissolve parliament, opening the way for a snap election around March that he hopes to win as head of a new centrist party.[Reuters]

"I believe the election should be held as early as possible," President Moshe Katsav said in broadcast remarks after meeting Sharon.

Katsav said he would immediately begin consultations with legal authorities and political leaders on moving up an election date originally due in November 2006.

Israeli political commentators expected the new ballot would be held in March.

Sharon was expected later in the day to announce that he was leaving the right-wing Likud, where he has faced a rebellion over a Gaza pullout completed in September, and establish a breakaway centrist party that would seek to pursue peacemaking with the Palestinians.