Jerusalem voters pick new mayor

[Salem6]

Voters in Jerusalem are choosing a new mayor after a hard-fought election campaign that has raised tensions between religious and moderate Jews.



The frontrunners are an ultra-Orthodox rabbi, Meir Porush, and Nir Barkat, a secular city councillor.

Polls opened at 0500 GMT, and a second round of voting will be necessary if no candidate wins 40% of the vote.

Local elections are also taking place in 160 other areas of Israel ahead of national polls on 10 February.

Also standing are the multi-millionaire Russian immigrant businessman and football club owner, Arkadi Gaydamak and the left-wing candidate Dan Biron.

The election is widely seen as a battle between the city's secular residents and its growing ultra-orthodox Jewish community.

MAYORAL CANDIDATES
Nir Barkat
Secular high-tech businessman, leading in most polls
Meir Porush
Ultra-Orthodox rabbi, Israeli MP since 1996, former deputy housing minister, Barkat's closest challenger
Arkady Gaydamak
Russian-born multi-millionaire, owner of major Israeli football club, currently on trial in absentia in an arms sales case in Paris
Dan Biron
TV executive-turned-bar owner, left-wing candidate from party seeking legalisation of marijuana


The outgoing mayor, Uri Lupolianski, is ultra-orthodox and has been accused by some in the city of favouring his own community.

Although Mr Barkat has been leading in the polls, correspondents say high turn-out among ultra-orthodox voters could still boost Mr Porush - who has been seeking to reach out to secular voters.

Both Mr Barkat and Mr Porush are on the right of the political spectrum and have promised to build extensively in what the rest of the world regards as occupied East Jerusalem, says the BBC's Tim Franks in Jerusalem.

Mr Gaydamak, who is being tried in absentia in Paris for arms dealing, has courted the votes of roughly one third of the city's residents who are Palestinian and Israeli-Arab.

Most of them traditionally boycott municipal polls as they see participation as recognition of Israeli control over the city.

The status of Jerusalem is one of the most hotly-contested issues in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Israelis see the city as their capital, and Palestinians want to locate the capital of a future state in the east of the city, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Israeli-Arab war.

Correspondents say that as well as handling the political tensions, the mayor faces major challenges improving traffic flow and cleanliness, tackling high property prices and attracting fresh business to the city.

Although none of the biggest Israeli political parties have fielded a candidate in the mayoral race, the post can be a step to greater things - outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003.



news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7721298.stm

[Salem6]

Nir Barkat was on his second attempt to become Jerusalem mayor


Jerusalem's new mayor, Nir Barkat, is the great hope of the city's secular Jewish community.

The well-dressed, smooth-tongued former high-tech business executive has said he is "determined to save the city".

Jerusalem is proclaimed as Israel's capital although other countries do not recognise it as such because of the competing claim of Palestinians to have its eastern sector as their capital.

However, it is also one of Israel's poorest cities and faces a brain drain as young and secular residents leave.

Mr Barkat's predecessor, Rabbi Uri Lupolianski, came from the city's growing population of highly religious ultra-Orthodox Jews, and was widely perceived to have favoured them.

Job shortages and soaring house prices have struck across the board, but the city's non-religious residents are also worried about the expansion of the conservative ultra-Orthodox communities into new neighbourhoods.

Left Kadima

Mr Barkat, a father of three and former paratrooper, has promised to draw investment back to the city and build it up as an international tourist destination.

More controversially, he has said he hopes to build more Jewish homes in Palestinian and Israeli-Arab areas in the east of the city - occupied by Israel in 1967 - and is adamant that the city should not be divided.

The possible division of Jerusalem under a future peace deal is one of the most explosive issues in peace talks.

This is the issue over which Mr Barkat left the centrist Kadima party, currently engaged in discussions with the Palestinians in which the status of Jerusalem is widely assumed to be on the negotiating table.

Mr Barkat was born in 1959 in Jerusalem and gained degrees in computer science and business management in the city, before going on to found the BRM Group, a pioneer of anti-virus software.

In 2003 he suspended his growing portfolio of business activities in the hi-tech sphere and was elected onto the Jerusalem city council, where he led the opposition until his election as mayor.

The founder of Startup Jerusalem, a body which seeks to promote private investment in the city, he also set up New Spirit, an organisation which supports students in Jerusalem.



news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7724696.stm