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Aryeh Deri is edging toward announcing his entry into the election campaign as head of a new party, ultra-Orthodox Mishpacha newspaper reported yesterday. Deri is expected to unveil his party at a press conference next week, after the Knesset officially brings forward the elections to 4 September. Deri, one of the most powerful politicians in Israel until he was convicted of accepting bribes and sent to prison more than a decade ago, is expected to present himself as the representative of Israel’s poor and as mediator between religious and secular.

On Thursday morning Shas chairman Eli Yishai’s told Israel Radio that he did not believe Deri would form a new political faction. “It’s hard for me to believe that he will form a new party,” Yishai said. “He always said he’d never go against the wishes of Rabbi Ovadiah [Yosef, Shas’ spiritual leader]. He loves and respects Rabbi Ovadiah, and I just don’t think he would do this.”

Careful not to antagonise his former patron, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, it has been widely reported that Deri will explain that his goal is not to lure voters from Shas, but to appeal to voters who wouldn’t consider supporting the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party.

The former Shas spokesman Itzik Sudri, who has close personal and family ties to Yosef, has said that in spite of the conflicting reports and messages, nothing has yet been decided and that the Shas Council of Torah Sages headed by Yosef has not discussed or ruled on the matter.