Israeli parliament formally sets April 9 election date in dissolution vote

Israel's parliament voted to dissolve itself on Wednesday, formally setting April 9 as the date for an election widely seen as a bid by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to weather potential corruption charges.

Netanyahu announced the early election on Monday, appealing directly to voters for a fresh political mandate. A national ballot had not been due until November 2019.

The right-wingIsraeli leader is enmeshed in three graft cases and denies any wrongdoing. He is awaiting a decision byIsrael's attorney-general on whether to accept police recommendations to bring criminal indictments against him.

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The indictment decision had been expected within weeks, but someIsraeli media reports said the attorney general could opt to delay the move out of concern he might influence the outcome of the election.

The Justice Ministry has said work on the cases would continue "independent of political events".

Opinion polls published since the election announcement on Monday predicted Netanyahu's Likud party would win up to 32 of parliament's 120 seats and form a right-wing coalition similar to the one it currently leads.

Parliament's dissolution, agreed by the government and opposition parties, opens the way for a more than three-month-long election campaign. Netanyahu's current government, which has had only a one-seat majority in the Knesset, remains in place until a new one is sworn in after the April ballot.