Jerusalem mayoral incumbent Moshe Lion defeated challenger Yossi Havilio and will serve as Jerusalem’s mayor for another five-year term, according to results from the interior ministry unit responsible for Israel’s municipal elections, which were held throughout the country on Tuesday.
The results are in
According to the interim results, Lion won 81.5% of the vote. This, however, does not include what are known as “double envelopes” – votes by soldiers, police officers, and others who could not vote in their assigned ballots. While Lion clinched the victory, the number is not final.
In Tel Aviv, incumbent Ron Huldai was re-elected after opponent Orna Barbivai conceded Wednesday morning. Huldai, 79, has served as the mayor of Tel Aviv since 1998. “Good luck to Ron Huldai, who will continue to serve as mayor of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. Thank you to the great public who supported me and to all the partners along the way,” Barbivai wrote X, formerly Twitter.
Mayoral candidates need to win at least 40% in order to win. If not, a second round will be held between the top two contenders on March 10.
Haifa heads to second round
Haifa is headed to a second round, as former mayor Yonah Yahav, who served as the city’s mayor between 2003-2018, only reached 36.3%, with over 99% of votes counted. He will face David Etzyoni, who won 21.9% of the vote.
In Israel’s fourth major city, Beersheba, incumbent Rubik Danilovitz was not challenged and will serve another term.
In the haredi sector, Agudat Yisrael’s Hanoch Zeibart won in Bnei Brak and defeated Shas’s Uriel Busso, who is also currently Israel’s health minister, with 59% of the vote. Zeibart will become mayor for the second time after serving as Bnei Brak’s mayor between 2013 and 2018.
Results in other municipalities
In a hotly contested race in Elad, Shas’s Yehuda Butbul won 55.3% of the vote and edged out incumbent Yisrael Porush, son of Jerusalem Affairs and Jewish Tradition Minister Meir Porush.
In Beit Shemesh, Degel Hatorah’s Shmuel Greenberg will go to a second round against incumbent Dr. Aliza Bloch. Bloch finished just ahead of Shas MK Moshe Abutbul by 0.5% of the city’s votes, which is approximately 275 votes.
In the Arab sector, a former member of Knesset from the Ra’am party, Mazen Ghanaim, won in Sahknin with 53.1% of the vote. In Tamra, Mussa Abu-Romi received 46.3% of the vote and defeated incumbent Suheil Diab. In Shfaram, Nahed Hazem was victorious with 46.1% of the vote, with incumbent Yasin Orsan finishing in fourth place with just 9%.
Yesh Atid chairman, opposition leader MK Yair Lapid, commended on Wednesday morning representatives of the party winning in 11 cities or councils, including Hod Hasharon, Kiryat Ono, and the Druze town Majdal Shams. Lapid said in a statement that his party had increased its representation in over 40 municipal councils, and in many of them, including in Tel Aviv, it became the largest faction. Lapid said that this was “further proof of the growing power of Yesh Atid in Israeli society and of the liberal camp” and also commended the “large number of women who were chosen to lead.”
“Israel needs change. We started with the local government, and we’ll continue with the national government,” Lapid said.
Religious Zionist Party (RZP) chairman Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also expressed on Wednesday morning his satisfaction over the results. In a post on X, Smotrich said that there had been a “record achievement” of dozens of the party’s representatives across the country.
“As many of them (RZP candidates) served the country in recent months on the war front, so too in the coming years they will loyally serve in the local authorities, with God’s help,” Smotrich said.
