[With Elections Over] Sharon Given Virtually No Chance of Regaining Consciousness
Commentary;
[IMRA: “Sharon is given virtually no chance of regaining consciousness” – but Attorney General Mazuz refused to act on this fact before the elections. It would have meant the very real possiblity that Binyamin Netanyahu, as head of the Likud party, would have run in the elections as prime minister and Mr. Olmert and his Kadima party would run as members of the opposition. Olmert would not have enjoyed the daily stream of PM photo-ops and he would have had to deal with a group bickering “Volvo-less” (not ministers) Kadima party colleagues.]
If Aaron Lerner’s commentary on today’s transfer of comatose former Prime Minister is correct, the apparent minipulation of the election campaign, and who the legal prime minister was or should have been seems an outrage.
It is clear, given the indecisive result of the March elections, that had Sharon been declared permanently incapacitated early on in the campaign, were someone else other than Olmert and his Kadima at the helm during the 3 months of election campaigning, the results might have been substantially different, that the scores 29-11 could have been Likud and Kadima rather than the way it turned out.
This points up the pressing need for a clear, or clearer delineation under law of Prime Ministerial succession, under all possible, foreseeable circumstances, i.e. in the event that the Prime Minister bolts his party and forms a new party and later suffers a stroke or other permanently incapacitating illness.