Israeli presidential election, 2014

Background

Incumbent President Shimon Peres announced that he would not run for a second term, despite an opinion poll showing 63% of Israelis would prefer him to remain in office. A second term would require change in legislation, as the Basic Law on the presidency permits only one term, following reforms made after the 1998 presidential election to prevent an incumbent being challenged for the presidency.

In November 2013, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein ruled that candidates would be barred from raising funds to finance their campaigns.

Candidates

In 2012, an agreement was made between Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Rivlin would be the party's candidate for the election if Likud won the 2013 Knesset election. Likud subsequently emerged with a parliamentary plurality. However, it was reported by the Jerusalem Post that both Netanyahu and Lieberman have a poor relationship with Rivlin and have not ruled out backing another candidate. In February 2014, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer of the Labor Party became the first candidate to receive the required 10 nominations from Knesset members. Four days before the election, Ben-Eliezer was investigated by the police on corruption charges and subsequently withdrew from the race.

Other candidates included Nobel Prize laureate Dan Shechtman, Meir Sheetrit of Hatnuah, Dalia Itzik of Kadima, and former Supreme Court judge Dalia Dorner. Potential candidates who expressed an interest in running but did not receive the written support from ten members of the Knesset needed for nomination include Uzi Landau of Yisrael Beiteinu, Silvan Shalom of Likud, and businessman Yosef Abramowitz.

Opinion polls

Although the public were not able to vote in the election, opinion polls were conducted to determine public support for the candidates.

Results

Only 119 votes were cast, as one member of the Knesset, Meir Porush, was abroad.