[lbo-talk] New Ultra-Orthodox Mayor of Jerusalem: Haredim get out the vote (38.02 percent voter turnout in total)

[Bryan Atinsky]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=300645&contrassID=2&su
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Lupolianski is capital's first Haredi mayor

By Jonathan Lis

Religious parties now hold 18 of 31 seats on council.

Ultra-Orthodox candidate and acting Mayor Uri Lupolianski (Degel Hatorah)
overcame independent businessman Nir Barkat to emerge yesterday as
Jerusalem's mayor for the next five years. Lupolianski won 51.39 percent of
the ballots cast in the mayoral election in the capital on Tuesday,
while Barkat mustered the support of 42.49 percent of the voters.


Tuesday's voter turnout was the lowest ever recorded in the capital, at
38.02 percent, as opposed to 42.32 percent in the municipal election in
1998.

As expected, the low turnout characterized the city's secular and
traditional population, which sent only around 50 percent of its voters to
the polls.
Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox residents also disappointed on election day,
despite estimates that more than 90 percent of them would cast
ballots. Just 70 percent of the ultra-Orthodox turned out to vote.

According to the latest voting tally, the mayor-elect received 90,090 votes
(some 7 percent of which came from the secular population);
Barkat won the support of 74,550 voters; while Likud candidate Yigal Amedi
mustered only 5,656
votes.

The three other candidates in the race - Yossi Talgan, Roni Aloni and
Larissa Gerstein - will not serve on the city's new council, after
failing to win enough votes for a seat.

Results from a few more polling stations, including ballots cast by soldiers
and the disabled, will be published within the next few
days, but aren't expected to substantially change the figures.

The election results mean that the composition of the Jerusalem City Council
has changed, with the ultra-Orthodox and religious factions significantly
boosting their representation with four more seats: Degel Hatorah with nine
seats, Shas with five councillors, and the National Religious Party with
four representatives will
hold 18 of the 31 seats on the council.

On the other hand, the Likud saw its representation on the council drop from
the three seats won by former mayor Ehud Olmert's list to two; while the
Labor Party, which was represented in the past by Teddy Kollek's One
Jerusalem faction, failed to make it past the election threshold and won't
send any representative to
the council.

Meretz and Shinui, the two secular parties running in the elections to the
city council, suffered the biggest downfall. Whereas the outgoing council
included seven representatives from Meretz and Arnon Yekutieli's Jerusalem
Now list, Tuesday's vote, which played down the Haredi-secular conflict,
left Meretz and Shinui
with just five council seats.

In the early hours of yesterday morning, after the extent of his victory
became clear, Lupolianski turned up at his election headquarters in the
Malkha neighborhood to address his supporters.

"I feel that things have come full circle today. One can say that in 1967,
the city was united and joined together; in 2003, its residents have been
united," the mayor-elect said, directing his words at those in the city who
fear an ultra-Orthodox takeover.

Lupolianski expressed his desire yesterday for a broad coalition that will
include the Meretz faction as well. The secular party's elected councillors
have not ruled out the possibility. Shinui, on the other hand, announced
before the elections that it would not join a coalition with the
ultra-Orthodox parties.

Members of Barkat's Yerushalayim Tatzliach (Jerusalem Will Succeed) faction
convened yesterday to formulate their opening positions in preparation for
coalition talks. Barkat, who will be sending six representatives to the city
council, now heads the second-largest faction in the Jerusalem Municipality.

After leaving his management post at the BRM venture capital fund some six
months ago, Barkat said yesterday that he would be devoting all his
time to his activity on the Jerusalem council, without pay. He said he would
only join the municipal coalition if Lupolianski adopted the comprehensive
work program he has put together for running the city.

"The results of the elections prove that the
Jerusalem public was not familiar enough with me.
We have made significant achievements in the
elections. While 43 percent did indeed cast their
votes for me, my body of