The Kadima council Monday night completed a 12-day voting process in which it gathered a majority of the 180 council members to vote for leadership primaries in September. The move will put Prime Minister Ehud Olmert out of office unless he decides to run in the elections, a more distant possibility every day as his popularity continues to wane.

The Kadima election committee will decide on a cut-off date for members to announce their candidacy for leadership. Minister Tzipi Livni, Shaul Mofaz, Avi Dichter and Moshe Sheetrit are competing to become party chairman, who also would head the next government. Foreign Minister Livni is slightly ahead of Transportation Minister Mofaz in popularity polls.

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