In Tel Aviv, residents decided that Mayor Ron Huldai was to remain in his position for the next five years, which will spur him on to lead the city for a quarter a century once his new term of office is completed.
Jerusalem will see a run-off vote on November 13, as there was no clear winner for the city. With 96% of the Jerusalem votes counted, Moshe Lion won 33.3% of the votes, Ofer Berkovitch 28.8% of the votes.
By Ilanit Chernick, TPS
It was a night filled with several surprises and drama as Israel’s municipal election results poured in overnight on Wednesday.
For the first time, Israelis were given the day off to vote in municipal elections and voter turnout was up, even if by a few percent. According to the Interior Ministry, 3.6 million people voted out of 6.6 million eligible voters in 251 cities, towns, and local councils, representing an increase of about five percent since the last municipal elections five years ago.
In a historic win, Haifa named its first woman mayor, Einat Kalisch Rotem in a solid defeat against mayor Yona Yahav who had been entrenched as the city’s mayor for 15 years.
Kalisch Rotem garnered some 56 percent of the city vote, unseating Yahav who only got 38 percent.
Drama between the two marred the day as both candidates accused each other of serious election meddling.
“They shut down my phone, I’m under a crazy cyber attack,” Yahav told Walla on Tuesday. “They’re stealing our slips. If we don’t have slips in the ballots and Kalish does, it’s obviously intentional. It was a dirty election campaign and an even dirtier election day.”
Kalisch Rotem alleged that thousands of ballots with her name on had also gone missing on Tuesday.
Despite the run-in with Yahav, Kalisch Rotem was still slated to become the first woman mayor of one of Israel’s major cities.
In Tel Aviv, residents decided that Mayor Ron Huldai was to remain in his position for the next five years, which will spur him on to lead the city for a quarter a century once his new term of office is completed.
“We have many more things to do for the people of Tel Aviv,” Huldai said on Wednesday morning. “I thank the residents of Tel Aviv for their trust and the great team. They did a wonderful job.”
With over 60% of the votes counted Huldai garnered 46% of the vote and his opponent – and deputy mayor – Asaf Zamir received 35%.
Jerusalem will see a run-off vote on November 13, as there was no clear winner for the city. With 96% of the Jerusalem votes counted, Moshe Lion won 33.3% of the votes, Ofer Berkovitch 28.8% of the votes, Ze’ev Elkin 19.8%, deputy mayor Yossi Daitch 17.2% and former city attorney Avi Salman 0.8%.
With Berkovitch coming in second place, he will face-off with Lion for the mayoral seat in the run-off vote. The winner needs 40% to clinch victory in the capital.
In Nahariya, Jacky Sabag, who held office for the last 30 years was unseated by Ronen Marley who won 62% to 23%.
Fuming from his humiliating loss, he told his constituency that “he had reached a conclusion” that they were a bunch “of ingrates.”
A close battle is raging in Beit Shemesh, with the votes of soldiers, prisoners and the disabled to be the decider. There are only about 251 votes between independent religious-Zionist candidate Aliza Bloch and Shas-affiliated mayor, Moshe Abutbul. So far Abutbul has won 21,750 votes while Bloch won 21,499 votes.
However, soldiers votes will only be counted and final results may only be available on Thursday.
Meanwhile, in the South, Yerucham also named its first woman mayor Tal Ohana.
Ramat Gan, Raanana, Hod Hasharon, Rishon LeZion, Kfar Saba, Bat Yam will also see run-off elections in two weeks time.