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Rivlin defeated Meir Sheetrit 63:53 in the second round vote in the Knesset.
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The Knesset has elected MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud-Beitenu) as Israel’s tenth president in a 63:53 second round vote, against MK Meir Sheetrit (Hatnua). Rivlin will succeed President Shimon Peres and serve a single, seven-year term.
Born in Jerusalem in 1939, Rivlin is married and has four children. A lawyer by training, he served as director and chairman of the Beitar Jerusalem Sports Association, as a member of the Jerusalem city council for a decade and as chairman of the Institute for Occupational Safety and Hygiene. He also served as Minister of Communications in the Sharon government at the start of the previous decade.
“I have earned your trust as Speaker of this house, as one responsible for overseeing the proper and fair swinging of the pendulum of debate, ” Rivlin wrote the MKs during his campaign, “Now I wish to make the President’s Residence a house of partnership, dialogue and understanding.”