Both Likud and the Labor Party claimed victory in Tuesday’s runoff elections for mayors and local council chairpersons.
Likud officials pointed out that their candidates had won in 11 of the 19 localities in which the two parties had competed directly against each other.
But Labor said their eight gains, some of them removing incumbent Likud mayors, showed that the sharp decline in Labor fortunes indicated by the results of the first round two weeks ago had been halted.
In Even Yehuda, Likud candidate Zivia Ben-Dror won the mayoralty, becoming the first woman ever to head a local council.
In the Arab sector, Islamic fundamentalists won in two localities: the Bedouin town of Rahat, near Beersheba, and the Arab village of Jaljulya, near Kfar Sava.
Both major parties are now competing for leadership in the important local government association body in which the Likud claims to have won 70 of the 140 seats.
But Labor claims the support of a number of independent mayors, as well as that of a number of Arab mayors, whose backing would enable Labor to maintain the local government control it has had for over 50 years.
The attention of both major parties now turns to the Histadrut elections in November.
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