Two left in race for Jerusalem mayor

Jerusalem – The highly contested race for mayor of Jerusalem, a role shaping Israel’s rule over the sacred city at the heart of its conflict with neighbouring Palestinians, will go to a runoff between religious and secular Jewish candidates, election tallies showed yesterday.

Moshe Lion, a skullcap-wearing bureaucrat favoured by two key members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightist Cabinet, will face off against Ofer Berkovitch, the 35-year-old deputy mayor, after they came out on top of Tuesday’s five-man contest – but neither with sufficient votes to win outright.

The ballot was held as part of a nationwide Israeli municipal elections in which many candidates run as independents or on nontraditional party lists, making it difficult to gauge any broader political impact from the results. – Reuters