Members of Israel's extreme right Likud Party have chosen former-premier Binyamin Netanyahu as its new leader.
Leader of the Likud Party, Binyamin Netanyahu
Polls from all three Israeli TV stations showed Netanyahu with 47 per cent of the vote - 15 percentage points more than his closest rival, foreign minister Silvan Shalom. Shalom conceded defeat, and party officials did not wait for the official count to declare Netanyahu the winner.
Netanyahu pledged to lead the party back to the top. "First of all we must bring the Likud back to itself and then to the leadership of the country. It begins now, up, up and up," he said.
Sharon's new party, Kadima, holds a commanding lead in the polls, but the party is built around Sharon - Israel's oldest prime minister - and his health is likely to become a major campaign issue.
Sharon, who is extremely overweight, was rushed to Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem on Sunday evening after showing signs of confused speech, doctors said.
Doctors said he suffered a minor stroke when a small blood clot, which quickly broke up, briefly blocked a blood vessel feeding his brain.
He never lost consciousness or suffered paralysis, and the stroke only temporarily affected his speech, not his memory or cognitive abilities, they said. Sharon was being treated with blood thinners.
"I can say confidently that the stroke will leave no damage or residual effects," said his neurologist, Dr. Tamir Ben-Hur. "I would say chances are excellent that he won't have another one."