Polls open in israels municipal elections

Polling stations, which open at 7am, will close at 10pm in most places. Communities with 350 residents or less will close their polls at 8pm.

For the first time, 251 of the 257 municipalities in Israel.

Photo file (Photo: Avi Rokach)

Israelis will be able to cast 11,000 ballot boxes at some 4,000 polling stations across the country. Voting for mayor will be done on yellow ballots, while voting for a party in the city council will be done with a white ballot. At regional councils, residents will be able to vote for town council members with blue bots.

If none of the mayoral candidates receives 40 percent or more of the votes, residents will be called to vote in a second round on November 13, choosing between the two leading candidates.

Incumbent Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav votes

Two of the Jerusalem mayoral candidates, Ze'ev Elkin and Yossi Deutch, were seen praying together at the Western Wall early Tuesday morning.

One of the main goals set by the Interior Ministry, which is entrusted with the municipal elections, which is traditionally around 50 percent-significantly lower than the national elections, which has a 70 percent voting rate. To that end, the municipal elections have been made a sabbatical for the first time since 1986.

Incumbent Tel Aviv Ron Huldai and Deputy Mayor Asaf Zamir, who is running against his boss, vote (Photos: Motti Kimchi, Tal Shahar)

In another first, some 10,000 prisoners in 27 prisons and jails will be able to cast their ballot. Voting at IDF Boxes, where Police and Prison Service can also vote, began on Saturday night and will end on Wednesday.

Druze municipalities in the Golan Heights-Buq'ata, Mas'ade, Ein Qiniyye and Majdal Shams, but all candidates for the race in both Buq'ata and Mas'ade , apparently after receiving threats, and there will be no elections in those towns.

Protest in Majdal Shams

Seventeen municipalities have a single candidate running for mayor: Kiryat Bialik, Acre, Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut, Givatayim, Rehovot, Kiryat Ata, Even Yehuda, Mevaseret Zion, Ma'ale Adumim, Nazareth Illit, Ma'ale Efrayim, Rekhasim, Ghajar, Kiryat Ye'arim, Rameh, Kaukab Abu al-Hija and Kisra-Sumei.

In those municipalities, voting with a green ballot would mean voting against the sole candidate. If there are more votes cast against the candidate than for them, the elected city council members will choose the mayor.

Ma'ale Efrayim, Rekhasim, Ghajar and Kiryat Ye'arim will not hold elections for the city.

Brenner, Menashe, Sdot Dan, Sdot Negev, Nahal Sorek, Hevel Eilot, Ramat Negev, Merhavim, Yoav, Megilot and Brenner, Menilot Hof HaSharon.

Amir Alon, Ahiya Raved, Itay Blumenthal, Ilana Curiel, Tzuri Matan and Inbar Tviser contributed to this report.