Preliminary results: The mayors of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem should each secure a new term

Preliminary results also showed that ultra-Orthodox parties won almost half of the votes in the Jerusalem City Council. This is believed to be primarily due to low voter turnout in other blocs.

The mayoral and municipal council elections were originally scheduled for October 31, but they had to be postponed due to the outbreak of the war between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas.

Elections were held on Tuesday, except in areas that had undergone large-scale evacuations during the war.

Almost 150 thousand people were evacuated from border areas south of the Gaza border and north of the Lebanese border, where the Israeli military and Hamas’s ally Hezbollah exchange fire almost daily.

Voter turnout on Tuesday was lower than in the last municipal elections in 2018 – only 49 percent voted. of persons entitled to vote.

In Tel Aviv, former Economy Minister Orna Barbivaja conceded defeat to the long-time current mayor, Ron Hulday, who has held this position for a quarter of a century.

According to the preliminary results published by the Ministry of Interior, it appeared that the mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Lion, also won a landslide victory in this election.

According to Israeli media, Tuesday’s vote was attended by many representatives of the ultra-Orthodox community.

The ultra-Orthodox make up about a third of Jerusalem’s population and traditionally vote for political parties that defend their community’s interests.

Palestinians, who have the right to vote in municipal elections but not in the Israeli parliament, make up about 40 percent of the population in Jerusalem. population.

But most of them have been boycotting municipal elections since Israel captured and later annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, although the international community has never recognized this.