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Candidate Einat Kalisch Rotem defeated the mayor of Haifa, the current three-term mayor, and became the first female mayor of the northern coastal city, according to an exit poll Tuesday night.
The investigation, carried out for Radio Haifa, revealed that Kalisch Rotem won more than 57% of the vote, voting against Yona Yahav – who won about 35% of the vote – after 15 years in office.
The final results were expected in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday or Wednesday morning. Kalisch Rotem said that she was encouraged by the ballot at the exit but that she was waiting for the final tally.
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If the results were confirmed, this was the first time a woman had been elected to the helm of Israel's three major cities – Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv – in the 70 years since that state's creation.
Earlier in the day, the two candidates mutilated, claiming that they were seriously interfering in the elections.
"They shut down my phone, I'm the victim of a crazy cyberattack," Yahav told the Walla press website. "They steal our leaflets. If we do not have ballot papers in the ballot, unlike Kalish, it is intentional. It was a dirty election campaign and an even dirtier election day. "
Kalisch Rotem, on the other hand, alleged that thousands of ballots bearing her name had disappeared.
The exit vote also predicted that Kaisch Rotem's Hayim B'Haifa party, Yona Yahav and Haifa's youth party would each get five seats on the council.
Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav deposited his ballot papers at a polling station on the morning of the municipal elections on 30 October 2018 in Haifa. (Meir Vaknin / Flash90)
The Kalisch Rotem campaign in Haifa was marked at the beginning of the month by an eleven-hour political drama after it was banned from running by the Interior Ministry and the Haifa District Court before the race, before being reinstated by the High Court of Justice.
She had been briefly withdrawn from the race after her Labor lawyer had submitted two candidates, including Kalisch Rotem, to the race, in violation of the electoral rules.
Another competitor, David Etzioni, has abandoned the race in recent days and announced that he was supporting Kalisch Rotem. She has also been supported by the Haredi Degel HaTorah faction and the Meretz left-wing list.
A member of the municipal council since 2013, Kalisch Rotem had already sat at the town hall of the city five years ago. She only got 15% of the vote and three seats on the city council, according to her website.
Urban planner and professional architect, Kalisch Rotem was convicted in March of having built a three-story house in Zichron Yaakov without a building permit, according to the business daily The Marker. She was fined 30,000 NIS for her involvement.
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