At the mayoral election in Jerusalem, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suffered a defeat. The supported by him candidate Seev Elkin came according to the result published yesterday only to 20 percent of the vote and did not even make it to the runoff. Elkin is Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and a member of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party.None of the six candidates came in the vote yesterday about the 40 percent of the vote, which is required for the election in the first round. The best result was achieved with 33 percent of the rights Moshe Lion. He has the backing of Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, known as „Falcon“, and ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups. In the runoff election on November 13, he will play against the secular candidate Ofer Berkowitz, who came to 29 percent.
First mayor in Haifa
In the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv, leftist mayor Ron Huldai has been re-elected by the Labor Party for a fifth term of five years in office. In Haifa, Einat Kalisch Red of the Labor Party becomes first female leader of the city and also the first woman at the top of one of the three largest cities in Israel.
Unlike parliamentary elections, in which only Israeli citizens and citizens are allowed to vote, residents without an Israeli passport may participate in the local elections. This is especially true for around 300,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Traditionally, most of them boycott the local elections.
