ISRAELI PRESIDENT INITIATES MOVE TO ALLOW A NEW CANDIDATE TO FORM GOVT

JERUSALEM: Israel’s president on Wednesday signaled he would move quickly to task a new candidate with forming a government after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to do so ahead of a midnight deadline.

Netanyahu’s political future was thrown into question when he failed to assemble a ruling coalition in the four weeks allotted to him, raising the possibility that his 12-year run as prime minister - the longest in Israeli history - could soon come to an end following more than two years of political paralysis.

“It looks like, perhaps within a few days or a few weeks, we might have a functioning coalition that will not include Mr Netanyahu. This will be a groundbreaking change,” said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent think tank.

He acknowledged, however, that “a fifth consecutive election is still, unfortunately, a real possibility”.

President Reuven Rivlin, who occupies a mostly ceremonial role, is expected in the coming days to give one of Netanyahu’s opponents a chance to form an alternative coalition government. He also could ask the parliament to select one of its own members as prime minister. If all else fails, the country would be forced into another election this fall - the fifth in just over two years.

Rivlin met with the two main candidates for forming a government - opposition leader Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, a former Netanyahu ally - and asked parties to make their positions known before 2pm (1100 GMT). Elections held on March 23 ended in deadlock for the fourth consecutive time in the past two years.