TEL AVIV (JTA) — At least six candidates will run for president of Israel, setting a new record.
In another first, at least two of the candidates in the June 10 election by the Knesset are women.
Reuven Rivlin, a Likud party member of the Knesset, is considered the front-runner in the race. Other hopefuls include Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a Labor Knesset member; Meir Sheetrit, a Hatuna lawmaker; Dalia Itzik, a former Kadima Knesset member; Dalia Dorner, a retired Supreme Court justice; and Dan Shechtman, a Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry.
The candidates have acquired the requisite 10 signatures from Knesset members for nomination, doubling the three who ran in 2007, according to Haaretz. The deadline for acquiring signatures is Tuesday.
The winner will replace Shimon Peres, who will complete his seven-year term in July. Rivlin finished second to Peres in 2007 — a race that featured the first female candidate, third-place finisher Colette Avital, then a Labor lawmaker.
