Some 35 municipalities will hold their second round of elections for mayor on Sunday after no candidates managed to secure the necessary 40% of the vote in the first round of voting on Tuesday, February 27.
According to Israeli law, in this scenario, the top two finishers in the race go head-to-head, and therefore, 70 candidates will be up for election on Sunday. The second round usually takes place 14 days after the first one, but it was moved up by two days this year due to the holiday of Ramadan, which begins on Sunday evening.
Second round will be different from the first
Unlike the first round of municipal elections, the second round on Sunday is not a vacation day for the relevant municipal voters, and ballot boxes will open at 1:00 p.m. and remain open until 10:00 p.m.
Haifa is the biggest city to be holding a second round, with former mayor Yonah Yahav facing off against David Etzyoni. Other cities include Ariel, Harish, Rehovot, Ramle, Kiryat Gat, and Binyamina-Givat Ada.
Another notable municipality that will be holding a second round is Beit Shemesh, where incumbent mayor Dr. Aliza Bloch will face off against the Lithuanian haredi party Degel Hatorah representative, Shmuel Greenberg.
After the first round on February 27, Greenberg managed to sign agreements with the other haredi parties in Beit Shemesh, granting him endorsements from both the Hassidic party Agudat Yisrael and the Sephardic haredi party Shas.