Jerusalem ? Doctors expect Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to recover fully from a mild stroke and leave the hospital today, but his illness raised questions about his long-term health and ability to lead Israel if he wins a third term next year.

As the 77-year-old Sharon recovered, members of the hardline Likud Party, which he quit last month to form the centrist Kadima Party, picked ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu to run for prime minister in the March 28 elections.

Polls from all three Israeli TV stations showed Net-anyahu with 47 percent of the vote – 15 percentage points more than his closest rival, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.

Shalom conceded defeat, and party officials did not wait for the official count to declare Netanyahu the winner.

Netanyahu pledged Monday to lead the party back to the top. “First of all we must bring the Likud back to itself and then to the leadership of the country. It begins now, up, up and up,” he said.

Kadima holds a commanding lead in the polls, but the party is built around Sharon – Israel’s oldest prime minister – and his health is likely to become a major campaign issue.

Sharon, who is extremely overweight, was rushed to Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem on Sunday evening after showing signs of confused speech, doctors said.

Doctors said he suffered a minor stroke when a small blood clot, which quickly broke up, briefly blocked a blood vessel feeding his brain.

He never lost consciousness or suffered paralysis, and the stroke only temporarily affected his speech, not his cognitive abilities, they said. Sharon was being treated with blood thinners.

“I can say confidently that the stroke will leave no damage or residual effects,” said his neurologist, Dr. Tamir Ben-Hur. “I would say chances are excellent that he won’t have another one.”