JERUSALEM (AP) – The secular mayor of Jerusalem won a second term in a hard-fought campaign that saw him fending off a challenge by a candidate backed by two of Israel’s biggest kingmakers in the centerpiece race of nationwide municipal voting.
Challenger Moshe Lion conceded defeat to Nir Barkat at about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday (Israeli time).
With 70 per cent of the vote counted in today’s election, Barkat held a commanding lead of 55 per cent to 42 per cent over challenger Moshe Lion. Israeli TV stations said the 14 000-vote margin was all but insurmountable.
Barkat, a successful former high-tech entrepreneur, was elected in 2008 in a victory seen as a blow to years of dominance by ultra-Orthodox Jews over the city’s affairs. His term, characterized by high-profile tourism and cultural projects meant to boost the economy and halt an exodus of secular residents from the city, was generally seen as a success.
But Lion, a former director of the prime minister’s office, was backed by two key politicians elbowing to reclaim their former political glory.
Lion’s allies, former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Ariyeh Deri, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, both had much at stake.
Lieberman’s party lost seats in the last national election, and he is awaiting a verdict next month in an ongoing corruption trial. Shas was once a kingmaker in Israeli politics, but it no longer sits in the ruling coalition, and it faces a leadership crisis following the recent death of its spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
Critics say Lion is a political novice who relocated to Jerusalem recently to run for the job. In a recent TV interview, he failed to answer basic questions about the city’s cultural and political landmarks.
Recent polls had shown Barkat with a commanding lead. But analysts said a low turnout could favor Lion. Just 36 per cent of Jerusalemites voted, compared to a 43 per cent turnout nationwide, according to media.
Lion, himself an observant Jew, was counting heavily on ultra-Orthodox voters. In a last-minute blow to Lion, two leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis declined to endorse him late Monday, telling their adherents to vote according to their conscience.
Jerusalem is one of the world’s most difficult cities to govern: It lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and is the epicentre of secular-religious battles for control in Israel.
It is also Israel’s largest city, and its 800 000 residents include secular, modern Orthodox, and ultra-Orthodox Jews as well as Palestinians.
