Across the nation hundreds of polling stations opened up on Tuesday, October 22 for Israeli citizens and foreign permanent residents to vote for municipal elections. Early in the day in Jerusalem, Mayor Nir Barkat’s campaign officials already voiced concern over low voter turnout.

In Jerusalem, schools were closed and used as polling stations around the city. Voters slowly drifted in and out of the schools throughout the day as booths from the representing parties guarded the schools’ entrances. Supporters handed out flyers and voting papers as cars blared messages accompanied by music, to their potential voters.

A recent analysis of voter turnout from the Israel Democracy Institute’s website states that the current election campaign reflects an increase in women's representation in local politics in Israel, as an unprecedented number of women have been running for mayor or city council - including in the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors. However, on election day, women candidates had a different narrative despite a major marketing campaign by WePower, an NGO promoting women’s leadership, only two women won, out of 191 municipalities that elected mayors on October 22.

As the sun set on Tuesday evening, voters and campaign headquarters alike were appalled by the 35.9% voter turnout in Jerusalem (compared to 43% in 2008). Candidates and supporters used the last push of the evening to influence voter turnout through cold calling and social media. Public confrontations of supporters getting residents to vote were a common complaint.

Moshe Lion, the official candidate of the Likud-Yisrael Beytenu party was the outsider opposite native mayor Nir Barkat running for his second term. Many secular residents viewed Lion as the puppet of Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman and Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, his two most prominent backers. Barkat spent the duration of his campaign focusing on the city’s youth, the secular and the modern orthodox citizens. To many, the Jerusalem municipality elections were a fight for the character of the city: with those who want Jerusalem to become a modern thriving international city on one side and those who want to preserve Jerusalem as a modest and conservative city on the other. As in the past, a vast majority of the East Jerusalem Arab population boycotted the vote.

Nir Barkat won 51% of the Jerusalem vote. Earning four seats on the 31-member council were Mayor Barkat’s Yerushalayim Tatzliah party, while Meretz-Labor, Rachel Azaria’s Jerusalemites party and right-wing activist Aryeh King’s Jerusalem United party garnered each two seats apiece according to the Jerusalem municipality website. Shas finished with 5 seats and leading the municipality is the Ashkenazi Haredi party, Agudat Yisrael, with 8 seats.

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