The primary of Israel's ruling Kadima party began on Wednesday morning, with four current ministers competing to succeed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as party chief and possibly as premier.

Polls are scheduled to last 12 hours till 10 p.m. local time (1900 GMT), and some 74,000 registered members of the centrist party are eligible to vote at 114 polling stations in 93 different locations across the Jewish state.

Results of the first-ever primary of the Kadima party are not expected till late into the night, as the voting is not computerized.

In a survey conducted Sunday among 1,808 registered Kadima voters, when asked whether they plan to vote, 70 percent of the respondents answered "absolutely", 24 percent "I think so", and only 3 percent said they did not plan to vote.

A low turnout could harm Livni, as Mofaz's supporters are expected to be more committed to him and more likely to vote, local daily The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday, quoting Kadima officials as saying that they would be satisfied with a turnout of 55 percent.

The current prime minister, embroiled by a series of police probes, has announced that he would not contend in the race and would step down as soon as the party chooses its third leader since it was formed three years ago, among Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter and Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit.

Yet local media on Wednesday quoted Israeli political analyst Yaron Deckel as saying that Olmert would not tender his resignation letter to President Shimon Peres until late September or most probably early October.

Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev refused to comment on the report,reiterating Olmert would keep his promise to resign after the Kadima chooses his successor.

The Sunday poll, as well as another one released last week, showed that Livni, 50, was likely to beat her major rival and former Defense Minister Mofaz, 55, and the other two candidates, with over 40 percent of votes to avert a possible second round. Should there be a second round, she would also defeat the other frontrunner, according to the polls.

According to the survey last week, the top Israeli diplomat received higher scores than Mofaz in terms of the ability to handle economic, educational and welfare issues, and of the incorruptibility, while Mofaz overtopped Livni in the ability to handle security-related issues.

However, brushing off the polls, a confident Mofaz said on Sunday that following an in-depth study of the Kadima members, he believed that he would win in one round with 43.7 percent of the votes.

On Wednesday morning, Dichter said he was "cautiously optimistic" and would support whoever else wins the election. "At the end of the day, if I don't win, I will stand behind the winner and move forward with Kadima," local news service Ynet quoted him as saying.

On his part, Sheetrit was quoted as saying that "I believe the voters will prove the polls wrong."

By law, once Olmert resigns from the premiership, he would become caretaker prime minister and remain in power till the formation of a new government, a task expected to be assigned to the new Kadima chairman by President Shimon Peres following consultations with parliamentary factions.

A maximum of three rounds of cabinet-making efforts are allowed,which may take from a few days to three months. Should such efforts fail, early general elections will be held, probably in the spring.

In the earlier survey, over half of the respondents believed that Livni has a better chance of forming a new government, as compared to 29 percent who believed in Mofaz. Yet the military veteran pledged Sunday that he could set up a new coalition by Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year's Day that starts at sunset on September 29.

(Xinhua News Agency September 17, 2008)