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Local Election Results - 5574
by Dei'ah Vedibur Staff
In Bnei Brak, Chanoch Zeibart, the agreed candidate of the chareidi community, won with 95.8% of the vote. In Jerusalem the incumbent mayor, Nir Barkat, won with 51% of the vote. Moshe Leon, endorsed by United Torah Judaism (UTJ) had 45% of the vote, and Chaim Epstein, candidate of the Netzach party, got less than 4% of the vote.
In other mayoral races of major interest to the chareidi community, in Beit Shemesh, Moshe Abutbol, endorsed by the chareidi community, won with 52% of the vote. In Beitar, Meir Rubinstein won another term with 71% of the vote. In Elad, Yisroel Porush won a closely contested election with about 52% of the vote, to 48% for Zuriel Krispal. In Modi'in Illit (Kiryat Sefer) incumbent Yaakov Gutterman got almost 86% of the vote.
In the Jerusalem local council, unofficial results are as follows. In Jerusalem of 31 total seats, 8 for UTJ, Shas - 5, Hitorrerut - 4, Barkat's party - 4, Meretz - 2, United Jerusalem - 2, Yerushalmim - 2, Bayit Yehudi - 1, Likud - 1, Bnei Torah - 1, Pisgat Zeev - 1. The total percentage of eligible voters who came to the polls in Jerusalem was 36%. In 2008, 43% voted. Yossi Deutch, a member of the Jerusalem City Council from UTJ, said that the party had lost one seat to Bnei Torah and that one seat sat out the elections, that is, did not come to vote. He also said that the divisions within the chareidi community were what cost Moshe Leon the election. The Ger Rebbe did not endorse Leon and said that his followers were free to vote for whomever they wished.
In Bnei Brak, UTJ won 17 seats on the City Council. Shas won 6 and Bnei Torah won 2. For the first time, the entire Council is made up of members of chareidi parties. Usually there are no elections in Bnei Brak and all parties are given seats. This year some of the small parties (like Likud) refused to accept what they were offered, and they were exposed as having very few supporters in the actual voting.
In Beit Shemesh, Shas won 3, Degel HaTorah 3, Aguda 2, General Chassidi also 2. There are 19 seats altogether in the Beit Shemesh City Council so altogether the chareidim are a majority. In Modi'in Illit: UTJ won 13, Shas won 2 and Zach (Bnei Torah) also got 2 seats. In Beitar: Geshes won 12, Zaida won 2 and Weissberg got one seat.
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