Lurker, please feel free to update, since I'm sure you'll still be awake.
Lurker reporting:
2:30 am:
With 197 of 707 polling stations counted, Barkat now has 52.5%, Porush 33.3%, and Arkadi Gaydamak 9.65%.
The Channel 1 telephone poll predicts 50% for Barkat, 42% for Porush, 7% for Gaydamak, and 1% for Dan Biran (the old hippie stoner guy). Porush's people, however, seem completely unfazed, saying that they are privy to information that is far more reliable than Channel 1's poll, and that come morning, Porush will have won.
3:00 am:
Polling stations counted: 264 out of 707
Barkat: 50%
Porush: 38%
Gaydamak: 6.5%
At Barkat headquarters, they're already celebrating. And at Porush headquarters, they're still smirking...
OK, now I'm going to sleep...
Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
From the JTA:
ReplyDeleteWhile Jerusalem’s current mayor, the haredi Uri Lupolianski, is widely seen as sympathetic to secular concerns, his would-be successor, Porush, is not thought to have the same sympathies.
See there Chareidim, Tafasta merubah lo tafasta...
As for the rest of us, there's no doubt that in a hundred ways Porush would be a more welcomed choice than Barkat but in the one thing that matters most - that non-religious Israelis don't "write off" Jerusalem - it's probably a darn good thing that Porush lost.
Worse comes to worst, Barkat's less-than-Jerusalem-centric choices or feelings will only inspire a Zionistic backlash among chareidim and thus bring the coming-majority-community into greater alliance with Zionistic ideas, beliefs and goals.
mnuez
Baruch hashem, Barkat won. I think it's a much, much better choice. I hope he is able to really turn the city around and at the end of his term, I hope he will leave a better mark than just silly signs marking each neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteI'm in shock that someone I voted for actually won an election- this hasn't happened to me since I made Aliya! Just as well I didn't go for Dan Biron...
ReplyDeleteUTJ apparently have the majority in the Moatza, though. Things are going to be interesting...
PP, maybe you should make your vote a strategic one in the General Election. Take one for the team?
ReplyDeleteYellow Boy