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CNN Live At Daybreak
Prime Minister Sharon Sitting Pretty in Polls
Aired January 21, 2003 - 05:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's turn our attention now to Israel. It's the countdown to elections and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is sitting pretty in the polls.
Our Jerrold Kessel joins us from Jerusalem with more on the vote, which is now just seven days away.
So the scandal really hasn't hurt him, huh?
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely not, Carol.
Good morning to you, and it's a good morning for Ariel Sharon, Israel's incumbent prime minister. It's been a good week, as he keeps picking up in the polls, his Likud Party heading, according to those polls, for a decisive victory. And he has set those scandals behind him, corruption charges against his Likud Party, against, scandal against Mr. Sharon and his family, as well. But those seem to be way behind him and it's the opposition Labor Party which is really slumping in the polls.
So it does seem as if Mr. Sharon is heading for a victory.
But a week away and a week is a long time in politics, an absolute eon in Israel politics, and it could be that in that week things will change direction but -- especially when 20 percent of the electorate say they haven't yet decided who they will vote for.
But it really will, it seems as if it will be the day after the election that Mr. Sharon is looking towards with possible problems, because the Israelis don't vote for a prime minister. They vote for a party list. And it's a proportional representation problem, system, which creates some problems, say experts, too perfect a system they say, perfect for the voters, because virtually every single vote does actually count.
But so perfect that it could be a problem because so many parties are sometimes elected to the Knesset, Israel's parliament, that cobbling together an effective coalition government to govern effectively after the election, that sometimes can be a nightmare.
COSTELLO: Understand.
KESSEL: That's the kind of nightmare Mr. Sharon may be contemplating -- Carol.
COSTELLO: And how might that affect the Palestinian conflict? KESSEL: Well, the very interesting thing about this election is that you're likely to have a whole series of parties coming into play who don't really have an opinion on the Palestinian problem and how to resolve it. And that the offer that's being advanced by the Labor Party for a real different to the way Mr. Sharon has handled the conflict with the Palestinians doesn't seem to be flying with the electorate. So you could have Mr. Sharon trying to cobble together a coalition, which is an extreme right coalition. He's the left marker of that. His policies in place. But he doesn't really have the kind of coalition that he has in play to put through the kind of policies that he wants to advance with the Palestinians.
That could be something of a nightmare situation for the prime minister. But better that kind of nightmare, he says, than the kind of nightmare staring the Labor Party in the face, defeat in these elections.
COSTELLO: All right, Jerrold Kessel reporting live from Jerusalem this morning.
For more on the Israeli elections, log onto our Web site. You know the address, cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 21, 2003 - 05:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's turn our attention now to Israel. It's the countdown to elections and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is sitting pretty in the polls.
Our Jerrold Kessel joins us from Jerusalem with more on the vote, which is now just seven days away.
So the scandal really hasn't hurt him, huh?
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely not, Carol.
Good morning to you, and it's a good morning for Ariel Sharon, Israel's incumbent prime minister. It's been a good week, as he keeps picking up in the polls, his Likud Party heading, according to those polls, for a decisive victory. And he has set those scandals behind him, corruption charges against his Likud Party, against, scandal against Mr. Sharon and his family, as well. But those seem to be way behind him and it's the opposition Labor Party which is really slumping in the polls.
So it does seem as if Mr. Sharon is heading for a victory.
But a week away and a week is a long time in politics, an absolute eon in Israel politics, and it could be that in that week things will change direction but -- especially when 20 percent of the electorate say they haven't yet decided who they will vote for.
But it really will, it seems as if it will be the day after the election that Mr. Sharon is looking towards with possible problems, because the Israelis don't vote for a prime minister. They vote for a party list. And it's a proportional representation problem, system, which creates some problems, say experts, too perfect a system they say, perfect for the voters, because virtually every single vote does actually count.
But so perfect that it could be a problem because so many parties are sometimes elected to the Knesset, Israel's parliament, that cobbling together an effective coalition government to govern effectively after the election, that sometimes can be a nightmare.
COSTELLO: Understand.
KESSEL: That's the kind of nightmare Mr. Sharon may be contemplating -- Carol.
COSTELLO: And how might that affect the Palestinian conflict? KESSEL: Well, the very interesting thing about this election is that you're likely to have a whole series of parties coming into play who don't really have an opinion on the Palestinian problem and how to resolve it. And that the offer that's being advanced by the Labor Party for a real different to the way Mr. Sharon has handled the conflict with the Palestinians doesn't seem to be flying with the electorate. So you could have Mr. Sharon trying to cobble together a coalition, which is an extreme right coalition. He's the left marker of that. His policies in place. But he doesn't really have the kind of coalition that he has in play to put through the kind of policies that he wants to advance with the Palestinians.
That could be something of a nightmare situation for the prime minister. But better that kind of nightmare, he says, than the kind of nightmare staring the Labor Party in the face, defeat in these elections.
COSTELLO: All right, Jerrold Kessel reporting live from Jerusalem this morning.
For more on the Israeli elections, log onto our Web site. You know the address, cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
