No Massive Anti-government Protest Vote Registered in Israel’s Municipal Elections

Labor made some gains and Likud held its own in yesterday’s municipal elections in Israel which drew a relatively low voter turnout despite being a workers holiday.

Local issues and personalities predominated, frustrating those who had hoped to spot a national trend pointing toward the possible outcome of the next Knesset elections.

Pundits agreed that there was no massive protest vote against the Likud government’s economic or other policies. Shevach Weiss, a Labor MK and leading political analyst, observed that those who expected large-scale “punishment” of Likud “were disappointed.”

Labor Party chairman Shimon Peres professed to be “encouraged” and spoke of “the beginning of a political turnabout in this country.” But all he could cite in support of that assessment were Labor gains in some Negev development towns which were swept by Likud in the 1977 and 1981 national elections.

But Likud candidates won in some Labor strongholds, leading Likud MKs Haim Kaufman and Ehud Olmert to observe with some credibility that the opposition leader didn’t have much to be “encouraged” about.

KOLLEK WINS IN JERUSALEM, LEHAT IN TEL AVIV

In the local elections mayoral candidates run as individuals and town council members are elected from party lists. This results more often than not in split votes.

A case in point was the sweeping victory of Jerusalem’s ever popular Mayor Teddy Kollek who was re-elected with 63 percent of the vote in a city that is traditionally a Likud-Herut stronghold. But Kollek’s “One Jerusalem” (Laborite) list emerged with a bare one-vote majority in the new city council. It will have 16 seats in the 31-member body.

Incumbent Likud Mayor Shlomo Lehat of Tel Aviv, took 58 percent of the vote in a city where Labor usually dominates in Knesset elections. His Labor Party rival, Dov Ben-Meir, got a bare 22 percent and maverick independent Abie Nathan, the perennial peace advocate, finished third with a respectable eight percent. But Likud won less than 50 percent of the Tel Aviv city council which places Lehat at the mercy of his small coalition partners. The two biggest upsets occured in Herzlia, a wealthy suburb north of Tel Aviv where Likud challenger Eli Landau defeated incumbent Labor veteran Yosef Nevo for Mayor; and in Rishon LeZion, south of Tel Aviv, where Labor challenger Meir Nitzan unseated the incumbent Likud Mayor Hananiah Gibstein.

Labor incumbents were re-elected in Holon and Petach Tikva. In Haifa, Israel’s third largest city, its major seaport and a seat of Labor strength since the State was founded, Laborite incumbent Mayor Arye Gurel was re-elected with 63 percent of the vote.

The vote was very close in Ramat Gan, an affluent Tel Aviv suburb where Likud incumbent Mayor Yisrael Peled may face a run-off election against his Labor challenger, Uri Amit.

RESULTS FOR TAMI, NRP

Tami, a coalition partner which represents a low income Sephardic constituency, re-elected its candidate, Eli Dan, Mayor of Ashkelon, a seaport town with a large Sephardic population. Dan increased his majority over the last election and Tami picked up additional seats on the town council.

The rapidly declining National Religious Party, riven by internal strife, managed to elect only one of its candidates to the Jerusalem City Council. The NRP entered the election with two rival lists, one representing its “Young Guard” and the other its Lamifne faction.

Barely 50 percent of the eligible voters cast ballots yesterday, compared to an 80 percent turnout for Knesset elections. This led analysts and politicians to agree that the decision to hold municipal elections separate from national elections was an unsuccessful experiment.

COMMUNISTS FLUNK IN MOST ARAB TOWNS

Communist candidates did poorly in most Arab population centers of Israel. The Democratic Front, a surrogate for the Moscow-oriented Rakah (Communist) Party, lost control of five large Arab villages in Galilee. Their most serious setback was in Sakhnin near Acre in lower Galilee where a Labor-backed candidate triumphed. Sakhnin has a population of 14,000.

In Umm El Fahem, the largest Arab village in Israel, with a population of 20,000, the election was close and a run-off will be held in what was until now a major Communist stronghold.

But the Communists strengthened their grip on Nazareth, the largest Arab city in Israel. Incumbent Mayor Tawfik Zayyad was re-elected with 70 percent of the vote and his list won II of the 17 city council seats.

Nevertheless, Raanan Cohen, head of the Labor Party’s minority division, said the election results showed a significant deterioration of Communist strength among Arab voters. Uzi Burstein, a Rakah spokesman, stressed the Communist victory in Nazareth. He said that despite some losses, there were Communist gains in other Arab villages.