Channel 1 gives Barkat 50%, Porush 42%, Gaydamak 7%

Channel 1 gives Barkat 50%, Porush 42%, Gaydamak 7%

Looks like Nir Barkat is going to win. Phew… Despite efforts to get folks out to vote, early reports were that the turnout was low. This was seen as detrimental to city counselor Nir Barkat’s campaign. However, a recently released Channel 1 poll shows that Barkat is likely to win with 50% of the vote to Haredi candidate Meir Porush’s 42%. I’m hoping those numbers hold up.

There have already been allegations of election day shenanigans – a police man was injured by a group of haredim who were trying to prevent people from voting. The Barkat campaign is also alleging that Barkat ballots had been stolen from a polling station. These sorts of shenanigans have left a bad taste in my mouth – on several nights last week I’ve witnessed Yeshiva students tearing down and even burning Barkat posters at Machane Yehuda. At one point they even assaulted (!!) an old man passing by who tried to photograph what they were doing. I’m appalled of course and Porush will never get my vote – but I am still hoping that this kind of thuggery is exceptional and that most of our Haredi neighbors are law abiding citizens who don’t condone this sort of behavior.

UPDATE: As of 2:40 am Jerusalem time, with 118 of 707 polling stations counted, Barkat had received 46% of the votes, Porush 27%, Gaydamak 21%. Dan Biron, the Marijuana Leaf candidate got 1%. So far Barkat is doing a little less than what was predicted, Porush is tanking and Gaydamak is doing surprisingly well. But given the stratified nature of Jerusalem’s neighborhoods, anything is still possible. It’s going to be a long night, but at least Barkat seems to be well on his way to a victory. The final tally of eligible voters who voted is 41% – 3% more than voted in the last election. It’s an improvement of course, but given the tremendous efforts made to get the voters out by all parties involved, the low turnout might symbolize voter apathy and lack of faith in their municipal government. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come when the national elections take place in February….

FINAL UPDATE: Yup. Despite the low voter turnout it looks as if Nir Barkat is about to be declared the winner of this election and the next Mayor of Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Post now reports that with 264 of 707 polling stations’ votes counted, Barkat has received 52% of the vote, MK Meir Porush of the United Torah Judaism Party 38%, and Israeli-Russian billionaire tycoon Arcadi Gaydamak 6.5%. Barkat is set to give a victory speech at his headquarters off of Emek Refaim street shortly.

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ck

Founder and Publisher of Jewlicious, David Abitbol lives in Jerusalem with his wife, newborn daughter and toddler son. Blogging as "ck" he's been blocked on twitter by the right and the left, so he's doing something right.

9 Comments

  • I would post my post’s link explaining why the percentages weren’t what the pundits said. But you know that your “filter” would send it to Jupitor, so check out Shiloh Musings for the explaination.

    I guess it gave nb’s fans and staff heartburn for awhile, or worse.

    It seems like the guy with the grey stringy hair didn’t even get a *

  • “why did the religious zionists vote for him?? ”

    Religious Zionist vote was split – it wasn’t all for him. But the reason why a lot voted for him is because they feel that the Haredim didn’t do a good job in power for the last 5 years, and some of them feel that Haredi politicians only care about their own sector, and not the overall well-being of the city.

    Did you guys see the City Council results?

    From Ynet:

    Of the 31 total seats,

    UTJ (Porush’s party) – 8
    Jerusalem will succeed (Barkat’s party) – 6
    Shas – 5
    NRP -3
    Meretz – 3
    Jerusalem Revival – 2
    Likud – 1
    Israel Beitenu – 1
    Pisgat Ze’ev is on the Map – 1
    For the sake of Jerusalem – 1

  • Batya! We don’t delete your comments! You know you can always just call me if there’s a problem.

  • Now to answer the question that ak asked. You should know that we’re “national religious” of lower case letters, never having been in Bnai Akiva or NRP.

    Before moving to Shiloh we lived in Bayit v’Gan, Jerusalem. It used to be a strong NRP type neighborhood with an excellent Mamlachti-Dati, state religious school. The chereidim treated us like we were sinners, and Agudat Yisrael, of Porush’s family, invested a lot there in schools etc, at the expense of the MMD. They helped “their people.” One year when my husband had miluim from Tzom Gedalia I tried to call some of their “help” organizations to find someone to build our succach, but they refused.
    Also don’t you remember the recent chareidi psak that Rav Drukman’s converts aren’t Jewish?

  • Remember it? We’re still dealing with the ramifications of that retarded “psak.” The Haredim seem to have skipped that lesson on ahavat chinam and achdut and even derech eretz kadma leh Torah. Don’t get me wrong, I still love them without reservation as I love all my fellow yiddles, I just pray to hashem that they wake up one day and do something positive for all Jews with that Torah lurnin’ they got going on. In the mean time, I’m not going to vote for a candidate that embodies that spirit of divisiveness. And again, this is not motivated by an anti-Haredi impulse – this is motivated by pro-haredi sentiment. If this city falls apart due to exclusionist policies, political favoritisma dn myopic policies, all will suffer and I believe haredim will suffer disproportionately more.

    So there.