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ISRAEL-VOTE-POLITICS
Netanyahu pick for Jerusalem mayor ousted in first round
JERUSALEM, Oct 31, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’s pick for Jerusalem mayor has failed to make it past the first
round of polling, local election results showed Wednesday.
None of the six candidates for mayor, all Jewish, won the 40 percent of
votes required to be elected in the first round held on Tuesday, and a runoff
between the top two will be held on November 13.
Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Zeev Elkin, a member of Netanyahu’s right-
wing Likud party and who received the premier’s endorsement, won only 20
percent of the vote.
Moshe Leon, another right-winger, garnered the most votes with 33 percent,
according to official figures.
Leon has the backing of hawkish Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman and of
ultra-Orthodox Jewish factions.
While Netanyahu’s candidate faltered, Israel’s elections for mayors and
councils are seen as largely local affairs with few implications for national
politics.
The ultra-Orthodox, who make up some 10 percent of Israel’s population,
wield particular influence in Jerusalem, and the city has previously had an
ultra-Orthodox mayor. In relatively liberal Tel Aviv, Labour mayor Ron
Huldai was elected to a fifth five-year term.
In Haifa, also a traditional Labour stronghold, the party’s Einat Kalisch
Rotem became the northern port city’s first woman mayor and first female to
head any of Israel’s three largest cities.
Elections for mayors and councils are held every five years and have
served as a springboard for politicians harbouring national ambitions.
For the first time in local elections, voting day was declared a national
holiday in an effort to boost attendance.
Average turnout nationwide posted after polls closed on Tuesday night was
54 percent, compared to 50.9 percent in 2013.
Final official figures had not yet been published at midday Wednesday,
partly due to a malfunction of the interior ministry website.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1825 hrs