JERUSALEM — A voter survey released after polls closed predicted victory for a secular businessman against a powerful ultra-Orthodox Jewish leader in Jerusalem’s mayoral race Tuesday, a contest that again exposed the deep divide between religious and secular Israelis.
Israelis voted around the country, picking mayors and city councils, but local issues and strong independent candidates overshadowed clashes between the major parties three months before national elections. In Jerusalem, the three largest parties failed to field candidates for mayor for the first time, leaving the race to representatives of two of the city’s three distinctive and often squabbling groupings.
The telephone survey of people who voted conducted by Israel TV, released just after balloting ended at 10 p.m. local time, showed that secular candidate Nir Barkat defeated Meir Porush, 50 to 42 percent. The margin of sampling error and other details of the poll were not released.
Such surveys have generally reflected outcomes but have occasionally been inaccurate.
Porush, 53, an imposing figure on the ultra-Orthodox national political scene for years, his trademark bushy red beard going gray now, faced Nir Barkat, a venture capitalist in his second try for the mayor’s job.
Official results were expected early today.
With a high birthrate and government financial support, ultra-Orthodox Jews are a growing proportion of Jerusalem’s population, while many secular Jews are leaving the city because of their lack of control and rising municipal tax rates.
Left out is the third sector — Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents. They make up a third of the city’s population of 750,000 and have the right to vote after Israel annexed their section of the city in 1967. But most boycott instead of tacitly recognizing Israeli control by taking part in city elections. Palestinians claim their section of Jerusalem as the capital of the state they hope to create.
