The deadline for candidates to announce their intention to run was twenty days before the election, i.e. by 25 May. Avital was the first Labor candidate to officially announce her intention to run. She gained the backing of former Prime Minister
Ehud Barak, who at the time was running an ultimately successful campaign to regain the leadership of the Labor Party in
in that year's leadership contest. However, it appeared that most Labor MKs were likely to back ex-Laborite Shimon Peres, who was then serving as
Vice Prime Minister. Peres, however, was advised not to stand by his campaign adviser, in the belief that he would not win enough votes in a secret ballot, and that a defeat would be bad for his image. This came after the legislation for the "Peres Law", which would replace a secret ballot with an open one, was postponed until after the election by its creator, Kadima's
Yoel Hasson. The bill was seen as a means of protecting Peres from another upset defeat, after his loss to then-little known Likud MK
Moshe Katsav by a 63–57 vote in the 2000 presidential election. Nevertheless, Peres was named as
Kadima's official candidate on 28 May, and won the support of Rabbi
Ovadia Yosef, the influential spiritual leader of
Shas. Other persons who had been considered as possible candidates included
Dalia Itzik (
Kadima),
Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (
Labor), Rabbi
Yisrael Meir Lau, and
Meir Shamgar. Rabbi Lau had been warned not to run for the post by Labor MK and former journalist
Shelly Yachimovich. Yachimovich stated that were Lau to run, "certain stories from the past may arise, including some that have never been publicized." ==Results==