Only about 60 per cent. of the registered members of the Kenesseth Israel, the organised Jewish Community of Palestine, set up under the Palestine Jewish Communities Ordinance, went to the polls to-day in the elections to the first legally recognised Palestine Jewish Elected Assembly, the returns received here from the various parts of the country indicate. In Jerusalem only 55 percent (9,376) of the registered electors voted. In Tel Aviv, however, 17,162 of the total number of 22,000 electors voted, and in Haifa 6,773 electors voted out of the total number of about 10,000.
In Jerusalem Labour, including the Sephardic Labour List polled 3,580 votes, the Revisionists, together with the Sephardic Revisionists, polled 2,573 votes, the Sephardic List 1,131 votes, the Mizrachi 550 votes, the General Zionists 459 votes, the Women’s list 357 votes, the Yemenites 225 votes, the Left Poale Zion 109 votes, and the Communists 126 votes.
In Safed, where one of the worst massacres of Jews took place during the outbreak of August 1929, the Revisionists obtained 209 votes out of the total of 307 cast. The Labour List received 62 votes, the Mizrachi 64, and the General Zionists 25.
The agricultural co-operative and other Labour settlements voted practically solid for Labour some fully 100 per cent., like Geva, Sarona, and the Pinsk Kvutzah. At Nahalal 234 of the total number of 260 votes went to Labour, two to the Revisionists and 17 to the Mizrachi. At the Dead Sea camp 101 votes went to Labour and 13 to the Revisionists.
At Bnai Brak, the orthodox colony near Petach Tikvah, 130 votes went to Labour, 95 to the Revisionists and 56 to the Mizrachi.
At Tiberias, out of 654 votes cast the Sephardic Labour ticket obtained 191 votes, the General Sephardic List 129, the Labour List 135, the Revisionists 53 and the Women’s List 50.
In Zichron Jacob the Labour List polled 158 votes, the Revisionists 24, the Mizrachi 53, and the Yemenites 30. The colonists did not participate in the elections.
So far Labour appears to have obtained 13 seats and the Revisionists seven.
A leading Revisionist, speaking to-day with the J.T.A. here, said that the feeling in Palestine Jewry in favour of Revisionism was demonstrated more strikingly by the elections than was indicated by the actual seats won. A Labour leader, on the other hand, said that while it was still impossible to know the full results, it was clear that the Yishub had not surrendered to the Revisionists.
The elections were marked by a good deal of noisiness, but no incidents occurred anywhere.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
