Mr Ariel Sharon swept to a landslide victory in Israel's prime ministerial election yesterday, plunging the Middle East peace process into deep uncertainty and bringing about the resignation from politics of outgoing Prime Minister Mr Ehud Barak.
Mr Sharon's crushing triumph over Mr Barak vote alarmed left-wing Israelis and caused deep gloom among Palestinians.
Turnout was an unusually low 62 per cent, reflecting Israeli malaise and abstentions by Israeli Arab voters furious at Mr Barak over the killing of 13 pro-Palestinian protesters by police last October.
Results showed Mr Sharon (72) had won 62.5 per cent of votes cast compared to Mr Barak's 37.4 per cent with results in from 99.9 per cent of the polling stations.
Final results will be announced within a week. Mr Sharon will have 45 days to form a coalition.
The prime minister-elect appealed to Palestinians in a victory speech to end their four-month renewed uprising and negotiate with him for a "realistic peace."
He also urged his centre-left opponents to join him in a national unity government after he defeated Mr Barak by a whopping 25 percentage points.
Mr Barak had based his election campaign - played out against a backdrop of violence - on what he said was a choice between war and peace.
Conceding defeat, he quit as Labour Party leader and said he was giving up his seat in parliament after the biggest debacle in a prime ministerial election in Israel's history.
The defeat was all the more humiliating because it came only 21 months after Mr Barak swept to power in his own landslide against Likud prime minister Mr Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr Sharon told a joyful crowd of party faithful, who booed when he said the word "Palestinians": "I call on our neighbours, the Palestinians, to abandon the path of violence and return to a path of dialogue and a peaceful solution of our disputes."
Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat said he would respect the outcome and hoped the peace process would continue, although Mr Sharon has refused to shake his hand and has said peace talks will proceed only if the violence ends.
Other Palestinian leaders said the former general's victory meant disaster for peace.
Mr Marwan al-Barghouthi, a leading figure in Mr Arafat's Fatah movement, vowed to step up the Palestinian revolt in response to Mr Sharon's victory. "Our people's struggle will continue and the Israelis will regret electing Sharon," he said.
Mr Sharon said he would "open a new page" in relations with Israeli Arabs and would seek as wide a consensus as possible to heal rifts in Israeli society, many of which have deepened since the start of the Palestinian uprising in late September.
"We have had enough of hatred and anger for no reason," Mr Sharon said. "From this place, I call for a unity government, as wide as possible, to be formed."
Mr Sharon's first task will be to assemble a coalition from the sitting Knesset because for the first time in Israel's history there was no parliamentary election alongside the voting for prime minister.
If Labour refuses to form a coalition Mr Sharon would need the support of several religious and right-wing factions. Many Israelis believe that political in-fighting in the fractious parliament will lead to a general election within a year.
Reuters