Nearly 425,000 persons today went to the polis to cast their bellots in Israel’s municipal elections. A total of 527 municipal councillars will be elected by direct, secret ballot on the basis of a proportional representation system. The results are expected to be known tomorrow.
The number of slates in the field varies from city to city and from region to region, extending all the way from a single list in some regions to as many as 14 in Jerusalem. Tel Aviv has 13 competing parties and slates, Haifa has ten and Tiberias seven. Arabs voted in all cities where they reside and in Jerusalem some 90 percent of the Arab electorate had cast ballots by early morning.
The cost of the elections must be borne locally and Jerusalem has set a top limit of 24,500 pounds, while Haifa will spend 12,000 pounds and Tel Aviv’s budget is unlimited. The total sum spent by the various parties on this election was estimated here today to be 1,000,000 pounds.
President Weizmann cast his ballot in Rehovot, prior to commencing a four-day tour of the country. Premier David Ben Gurion voted in Tel Aviv as did the other members of the Cabinet who resided in Tel Aviv at the time they registered to vote in the 1949 election.
In Jerusalem the special registration cards were put to an additional use. They will be used as a census inder to record changes in the Jewish population and to obtain official records of recent newcomers.
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.
