Looks like Nir Barkat is going to win. Phew… Despite efforts to get folks out to vote, early reports were that the turnout was low. This was seen as detrimental to city counselor Nir Barkat’s campaign. However, a recently released Channel 1 poll shows that Barkat is likely to win with 50% of the vote to Haredi candidate Meir Porush’s 42%. I’m hoping those numbers hold up.

There have already been allegations of election day shenanigans – a police man was injured by a group of haredim who were trying to prevent people from voting. The Barkat campaign is also alleging that Barkat ballots had been stolen from a polling station. These sorts of shenanigans have left a bad taste in my mouth – on several nights last week I’ve witnessed Yeshiva students tearing down and even burning Barkat posters at Machane Yehuda. At one point they even assaulted (!!) an old man passing by who tried to photograph what they were doing. I’m appalled of course and Porush will never get my vote – but I am still hoping that this kind of thuggery is exceptional and that most of our Haredi neighbors are law abiding citizens who don’t condone this sort of behavior.

UPDATE: As of 2:40 am Jerusalem time, with 118 of 707 polling stations counted, Barkat had received 46% of the votes, Porush 27%, Gaydamak 21%. Dan Biron, the Marijuana Leaf candidate got 1%. So far Barkat is doing a little less than what was predicted, Porush is tanking and Gaydamak is doing surprisingly well. But given the stratified nature of Jerusalem’s neighborhoods, anything is still possible. It’s going to be a long night, but at least Barkat seems to be well on his way to a victory. The final tally of eligible voters who voted is 41% – 3% more than voted in the last election. It’s an improvement of course, but given the tremendous efforts made to get the voters out by all parties involved, the low turnout might symbolize voter apathy and lack of faith in their municipal government. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come when the national elections take place in February….

FINAL UPDATE: Yup. Despite the low voter turnout it looks as if Nir Barkat is about to be declared the winner of this election and the next Mayor of Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Post now reports that with 264 of 707 polling stations’ votes counted, Barkat has received 52% of the vote, MK Meir Porush of the United Torah Judaism Party 38%, and Israeli-Russian billionaire tycoon Arcadi Gaydamak 6.5%. Barkat is set to give a victory speech at his headquarters off of Emek Refaim street shortly.

Maybe. We’ll see. But for those of you who are residents of Jerusalem, Jewlicious, along with Jerusalemite.net and Tachlis.org are bringing you the opportunity to have some intimate time with Nir Barkat – Jerusalem Mayoral candidate in the upcoming municipal elections (November 11th). The polls have Barkat ahead in a field that includes Rabbi Meir Porush (the dude that made little dancing girls wear burqas at the opening of Jerusalem’s new light rail bridge) and former Shas leader Aryeh Deri (who was told today by the Jerusalem District Court that he can’t run for Mayor because less than 7 years had passed since he was tried and convicted of accepting bribes, fraud and breach of faith and receiving something by deceit in aggravated circumstances). Yeah.

Anyhow, since we here at Jewlicious love Jerusalem so much, we want those of our readers who are Jerusalem residents to make as informed a decision as possible regarding the upcoming election. That’s why, along with our friends at Jerusalemite.net and Tachlis.org, we helped organize this event. Nir Barakat will give a brief speech, then answer questions and yes… light refreshments will be served.

So this Sunday, October 5th at 7 pm, come on down to Yehoshua Bin Nun 23 in the German colony. See what this Nir Barkat fellow is all about. I’ll bring Arak and raise a toast to the totally pathetic campaign run by my boys in Shas. Seriously. A convicted felon?? I would have made a better mayoral candidate.

Update: Rabbi Porush now has a semi-functioning Web site. It’s a one pager with a video and now his creepy cartoon character persona is waving! Sometimes I hate Flash…

… and I hate dancing children! —>

Uh… the banner above contains 2 beloved characters from the Shabot 6000, a goofy Rabbi and an irreverent robot. It also contains 2 characters from South Park – Mrs. Broflovski, Kyle’s Mom and the matriarch of South Park’s token Jew family, and Eric Cartman who is just so damned cool, even though he’s a Jew baiter. The fifth character in the middle is Meir Porush, who was selected by the United Torah Judaism party to run as Mayor of Jerusalem. So what is that? Why is he a cartoon character? Am I going to link to a funny viral video dealing with Jerusalem city politics? No. That’s the image Porush’s campaign has decided to plaster everywhere in Jerusalem in order to promote Porush’s candidacy.

And why not? He looks cute and warm and fuzzy. Not at all threatening! Porush who supported the decision to force prepubescent female dancers to wear what looked like burqas during their performance commemorating the opening of Jerusalem’s light rail bridge, is a good guy! For instance he’d like to reverse the trends that have seen 300,000 young Israelis abandon Jerusalem over the past 20 years for greener pastures elsewhere – better jobs, affordable rents etc. It’s not like they left Jerusalem because of the undue influence of guys that look exactly like him… and he has a Web site – http://www.porush.co.il – but don’t bother clicking on the link – with less than a month to go before the elections, the site is still under construction. It don’t matter none though. Haredim, who will form the bulk of those likely to vote for Porush, don’t usually have internet access. Well not at home anyway – but at night in Jerusalem, the Internet Cafes, especially those that offer private booths, are full of Haredim using the Internets. But I have a feeling they’re not exactly brushing up on municipal issues, if you know what I mean…

The elections will be held in November and we know Porush is running, as is city counselor and Internet entrepreneur Nir Barakat and maybe even Russian Billionaire, Angolan Diplomat, Israeli Philanthropist and subject of an INTERPOL arrest warrant Arkady Gaydamak. Lupiolanski, the current Haredi Mayor of Jerusalem may also throw his shtreimel in. Did I mention that the election is in less than a month???

Somehow cartoons seem oddly appropriate… I’m not voting for Porush because like… “Mayor Meir Porush” – how awkward is that??