Israel recorded low voter turn-out Tuesday in local elections for mayors and city councils across 191 municipalities around the country. Some 5,469,041 Israelis were eligible to vote, but by 8:30 p.m., just 42 percent had cast a ballot. Polls closed at 10 p.m. on Tuesday
Turnout at this time in Tel Aviv, Haifa, were 22%, 41% respectively.
Voter turnout in Jerusalem stood at 32% at 7 p.m.
The mayors of Israel's two largest cities, Ron Huldai of Tel Aviv and Nir Barkat of Jerusalem, were both fighting to keep their jobs, facing challenges from Nitzan Horowitz and Moshe Lion, respectively.
Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar, whose ministry is responsible for municipal elections, expressed concern over the low turnout numbers in the afternoon.
"It's very important to vote and I call on citizens to vote," he said. "I hope that we'll see a rise in the numbers in the coming hours."
As of 6 p.m. the police said that it had received 700 election day complaints: 260 for campaign violations and 200 disturbing the peace. Ten people were detained and six arrested for election day offenses, including using fake IDs and assault.
In Beit Shemesh police raided two apartments and found 200 identity cards in two belonging to people who are currently not in the country. Police arrested eight suspects and were investigating whether the IDs were used improperly.
A polling station on Ussishkin Street in Jerusalem was closed after election officials noticed the disappearance of ballots for candidate Moshe Lion, the Lion campaign reported.
Fearing the low voter turnout in the Tel Aviv municipal election on Tuesday evening incumbent candidate Huldai called on eligible voters to exercise their right to vote.
"The low voter turnout in Tel Aviv to this point should worry everyone," Huldai wrote on his Facebook page.
"Tel Aviv more than any other city in Israel reflects the spirit of free choice and democracy and today is the day to prove that. I call on all eligible voters to vote and influence the future of our city," he wrote.
In Ariel, by 7 p.m. on Tuesday there was a 34% voter turnout of the 14,441 eligible voters choosing among 25 ballots, according to Interior Ministry data. By evening, candidate Hana Golan posted on her Facebook wall that rumors she had retired from the race were false and encouraged voters to continue to go out and vote. Golan’s daughter Bat, speaking to the Post by phone said people were spitting on members of Golan’s team.
Reached by phone, incumbent Mayor Eli Shaviro said he didn’t hear about the spitting and that his team gave guidance and rules to his supporters on how to behave and to be respectful to everyone. He believes his supporters behaved with respect and dignity. He said throughout the day he was focused on the task ahead and feels content with the amount of people that came out to vote.
Politicians across the spectrum had urged voters to cast a ballot, with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu calling the municipal elections "important.”
“You can decide who will continue the momentum, the progress and the development,” Netanyahu said. “We are doing all that on a national level and we need strong, experienced and talented people to continue it on a local level. Those people are on the Likud’s lists.”
Finance Minister Yair Lapid echoed Netanyahu's message, telling his Yesh Atid faction on Monday: “I call on all citizens to get out of the house, vote and influence.”
Opposition leader Shelly Yacimovich (Labor) told her faction that Tuesday would be “a significant day in political life.”
“Municipal elections are the daily expression of our ideological agenda and belief that the government is responsible for making sure we have a good home, food, culture and education for our children,” Yacimovich said.
Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett pointed out at the Bayit Yehudi faction meeting that he was sure his party, which so far has had no mayors, would change this in the current election.
“We will continue what we started in the [general] election and become the home of the Jewish people,” Bennett stated.
He backed up his claim by traveling around the country and making phone calls to support his party’s candidates.
The attempt to take municipalities by storm has brought Bayit Yehudi some strange bedfellows.
The party is collaborating with Yesh Atid in Beit Shemesh, with Shas and UTJ in Kiryat Yam and Tel Aviv, with Likud in Sderot and Herzliya and with Chabad in Kiryat Malachi and Rehovot.
Both Bayit Yehudi and Yesh Atid invested substantial efforts in local elections as part of a strategy to further establish themselves as major parties.
Bayit Yehudi is running lists in 88 municipalities and hopes to win the mayorship in periphery towns like Kiryat Malachi, Sderot and Tirat Carmel. The party is expecting a jump in representation in local government from 78 city council members to over 100.
It has 50 female candidates running, and secular and Druse candidates lead some of its lists.
Yesh Atid has 28 city council candidates and 16 for mayor. The party emphasized that half of its mayoral candidates were female and that 35 percent of its lists were led by women.
Lapid’s party is also backing an Ethiopian- Israeli candidate for mayor of Kiryat Malachi – the first from this immigrant community to ever run for mayor in Israel – and several others for city council.
As for more veteran parties, the Likud is backing 65 mayoral candidates and 74 lists for local councils. Netanyahu has visited towns from Kiryat Shmona to Netivot in support of his party’s candidates.
Four mayoral candidates are running with Meretz, and the party has lists in 25 municipalities. Seven of those lists are led by women and 44% of the candidates are female.
Labor is backing 30 mayoral candidates and has 46 women in the first through third spots on city council lists.
Shas has 87 lists running in the election, as well as candidates for mayor in Elad, Beit Shemesh, Emanuel and Or Yehuda.
Other parties did not release numbers.
Two MKs are running for mayor: Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) in Tel Aviv and Haneen Zoabi (Balad) in Nazareth. If they win they will have to resign from the Knesset.
Of the 689 mayoral candidates around the country, 70% are running for reelection.
There are over 248,000 people who will be voting for the first time on Tuesday. In addition, there will be 8,771 ballot boxes – 2,221 more than five years ago.
The voter turnout rate for the last local election was 51%, as opposed to 60% in the Knesset election earlier this year.
Information about the elections can be found on the Interior Ministry website, which will be updated throughout the day with voter turnout numbers and results as votes are counted, or on a special hotline set up for Election Day at 1-800-800-508