Shimon Peres: Election loser

Shimon Peres is well respected at home and abroad

Shimon Peres may be a Nobel prize-winner and twice prime minister of Israel, but he is notoriously bad at winning elections.

He has lost every one of the five general elections in which he fought as Labour party leader.

Shimon Peres

Born 1923 in Poland

Immigrated to Israel in 1934

Married, three children

Member of parliament since 1959

Twice prime minister, Labour party

Nobel peace prize 1994

Candidate of One Israel party

Now he has missed out on the presidency as well, losing out in a secret ballot to an obscure right-winger, Moshe Katzav.

This was despite being widely expected to win.

The high point of Mr Peres' long career at the heart of Israel's political establishment was his 1994 Nobel Peace Prize awarded jointly with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

It was recognition of his role in formulating the Oslo peace accords, which set Israel and one of its arch enemies, the Palestine Liberation Organisation, out on the road towards ending their decades-long conflict.

That road to peace has of course been far longer and rockier than Mr Peres might have forseen.

It was ironic that, as Mr Peres' sought to switch from politics to ceremonial duties, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process he helped build has reached its - some would say predictable - nadir.

And it will be a bitter blow for the 75-year-old to have lost yet another election.