Municipal Elections in Israel

Israel’s local electoral system covers municipalities, local councils and regional councils, rather than a single uniform category of municipal government.[2] A February 2024 inventory counted 77 municipalities, 126 local councils other than regional councils, and 54 regional councils, alongside two industrial councils without residents.[2] The same inventory classified 164 authorities as Jewish, 85 as Arab and eight as mixed Jewish-Arab.[2]

Municipal elections determine the leadership of institutions responsible for a wide range of everyday public services.[5] Historically, these responsibilities have included education, health and sanitation, water management, road maintenance, parks and recreation, and fire brigades.[5] Local government also provides a setting for recruiting political leadership, communication between residents and government, and the maintenance of diversity within a small country.[6]

The electoral system separates the choice of an executive leader from the allocation of council seats in municipalities and local councils.[1] Residents can therefore support a mayoral candidate while choosing a different list for the council.[7] Lists may be affiliated with national parties or organized independently around local politics, and each authority constitutes its own electoral district for council elections.[1] The resulting councils commonly operate through coalitions, including in some cases where a single party already holds a majority.[6]

The municipal legal framework inherited by Israel included statutes with Ottoman origins that continued under the British Mandate and were subsequently modified to accommodate changing needs and encourage local self-government.[5] A 1926 municipal franchise ordinance extended voting rights to resident male tenants who paid at least one Palestine pound annually in municipal rates, even when they owned no property.[6] The comprehensive Municipal Corporations Ordinance of 1934 addressed election methods, municipal powers and duties, sources of revenue, budget approval and financial control.[6] It was carried over after independence in 1948, with many provisions continuing subject to modification.[6]

The 1934 ordinance broadened Tel Aviv’s municipal franchise to include men and women, citizens and foreign nationals, provided they paid at least half a pound annually in municipal rates.[6] This arrangement became a model for other Jewish councils established later.[6] Women’s local political rights nevertheless developed at different times in different Jewish communities: women could vote locally in Jerusalem from 1932 and in Petah Tikvah from 1940.[8] By 1948, women in all Jewish localities had obtained the right both to vote and to seek office.[8]

The first municipal elections in the State of Israel took place in 1950.[3] An archival file covering 1950–1951 records countrywide elections on November 14 and a General Zionist victory.[9] A contemporary clipping in that file describes secret-ballot elections in 43 municipalities and local councils, with 3,955 candidates competing for 527 seats.[9] It characterized the vote as the first in 15 years, noting that the preceding elections in the major municipalities had taken place in 1935.[9]

After 1948, the state encouraged Arab and Druze villages to establish modern municipal governments.[6] By 1968, there were 42 Arab and Druze local councils and one regional council composed exclusively of Druze villages.[6] Another 18 villages belonged to mixed regional councils, bringing approximately three-quarters of the non-Jewish population within its own local-government framework.[6]

From 1955 through 1973, local elections took place alongside Knesset elections.[3] Before direct leadership elections, voters chose councils through party lists, and the elected councillors selected the mayor or local-council head.[3] The Local Authorities (Elections) Law, 5725-1965, supplied the basis for council-election arrangements.[1] Local elections had previously followed a four-year schedule intended to link them to national elections, but repeated early Knesset elections disrupted that arrangement.[1]

In 1975, the decision was made to separate the schedules and hold local elections every five years.[1] The Local Authorities (Election of the Head of the Authority and his Deputies, and their Service) Law, 5735-1975, established the basis for direct personal elections of authority heads.[1] Direct election of mayors and local-council heads began in 1978, while council seats continued to be allocated through proportional party-list voting.[3][5]

Residents aged 17 or older may vote if registered in the relevant local authority, and permanent residents may participate even when they are not Israeli citizens.[10][11] A 2018 election guide stated that registration was tied to residence and that the voter register was fixed 40 days before the scheduled election.[10] For Jerusalem’s 2024 election, the eligibility description required registration in the Population Registry as a city resident and presence in Israel on election day.[11]

Local voting rights extend beyond the electorate for national elections. Noncitizen permanent residents of Jerusalem may vote in municipal elections, including non-Jewish East Jerusalem residents who hold Israeli permanent-residency cards.[11]

Elections use a secret ballot, and municipal and local-council seats are distributed proportionally among competing lists.[12] The number of council members depends on the authority’s population and is determined by the Ministry of the Interior.[12] Election financing is provided through government appropriations linked to the number of council mandates won by each faction or list.[12]

Voters in cities and local councils use separate ballots for the authority head and the council list.[10] The 2018 voter guide identified yellow ballots for the head of the authority and white ballots for council lists.[10] In regional councils, voters also choose a local committee in their community, using a blue ballot.[10] Where only one candidate stands for authority head, a green ballot can be used to vote against that candidate.[10]

An authority-head candidate must obtain at least 40% of the vote to win in the first round; otherwise, the two leading candidates compete in a runoff.[13] The second round generally takes place two weeks after the first.[7] Jerusalem’s procedural description also provides for a repeat election when candidates tie at or above the threshold, with the candidate receiving the most votes in the repeat election winning.[11]

Regional representation has a different structure from municipal list voting.[12] One description provides for each village to elect a representative by simple plurality, with those representatives becoming regional-council members.[12] Historically, regional councils brought together elected settlement delegates and dealt particularly with the needs of cooperative settlements, including kibbutzim and moshavim.[5]

Turnout and valid votes are separate measures.[11] Actual turnout counts everyone who voted, including those who cast invalid ballots, as a proportion of eligible voters.[11] Valid votes are those included in the final results; examples of invalid voting materials include empty slips, slips without letters corresponding to approved lists, and envelopes lacking polling-station committee members’ signatures.[11]

The minister of the interior is legally responsible for ensuring that local-authority elections are conducted properly and in accordance with the law.[4] Operational management and supervision belong to the Ministry of the Interior’s Senior Local Authority Elections Division, headed by the National Supervisor of Elections.[4] Balloting is manual, while information systems support staffing, training, voter-eligibility information, polling-location information, and the entry and publication of results.[4]

Elected councils exercise authority within a framework of national oversight.[5] In the late-1980s system, local self-government derived authority from bylaws and ordinances enacted by municipal, local and regional councils and approved by the interior minister.[5] The minister possessed extensive powers, including dissolution of municipal councils, while district commissioners held equivalent powers over local councils.[5] Although the municipal level enjoyed relative autonomy, local institutions had limited powers and financial difficulties and depended substantially on national ministries.[5]

Local authorities collected taxes and fees, but many also relied heavily on national-government grants and loans.[5] The electoral mandate therefore operated alongside financial dependence and administrative supervision rather than unrestricted local sovereignty.[5]

The February 2024 election operation had a reported budget of NIS 1.26 billion and involved approximately 12,000 polling stations and 30,000 election workers.[4] A subsequent audit identified deficiencies in election-system preparation, information security, privacy protection and physical access controls for sensitive election materials.[4] Many procedures remained manual, and some of the identified issues were addressed during the audit.[4]

The 2018 turnout figures show substantial differences among types of municipality: 85.7% in Arab municipalities, 75.3% in Haredi Jewish municipalities, 62% in mixed Jewish-Arab municipalities and 57.8% in non-Haredi Jewish municipalities.[2] Overall turnout was 58.7% in the Knesset’s February 2024 statistical summary.[2] Municipal participation had declined significantly after local and national election schedules were separated.[2]

In late 2013, Israel had 257 local authorities, including 85 in the Arab sector.[14] Local elections in Arab communities took place on October 22, and participation was high relative to the nationwide level; historically, turnout in Arab local elections had reached 85–90%.[14] Local politics were described as a key organizational framework and channel for advancing political, social and economic development.[14] In 26 Arab communities, the leadership contest required a second round.[14]

The Islamic Movement announced on September 13, 2013, that it would not participate in local elections, its first such decision in 30 years.[14] Khaled Hamdan, the incumbent mayor of Umm el-Fahm, ran independently and won 58.5% of the vote.[14] In mixed Arab-Jewish towns, Arab political factions sometimes combined into joint lists to improve their chances of gaining council seats.[14] In Upper Nazareth, where 6,500 Arabs were eligible to vote, Arab representation doubled to three council seats, whereas no Arab representative was elected to the Tel Aviv-Jaffa council in that election.[14]

Jerusalem displays particularly marked geographical differences in participation.[15] In 2013, approximately 576,100 of its 815,300 residents were eligible to vote, and citywide turnout was 39%, compared with 42% in 2008.[15] One detailed neighborhood account placed 2013 turnout at 39.1% citywide, 1.6% among Arab East Jerusalem residents and 55.3% among non-Arab residents.[16] Neighborhood turnout reached 82.2% in Ramat-Shlomo, 72.5% in Ramot-Alon North and 71.4% in Giv’at-Shaul.[16] Among non-Arab neighborhoods, the lowest figures were 35.2% in the City Center, 37.2% in Musrara and 38.2% in Ge’ula and Mea She’arim.[16]

Voting preferences also differed sharply by neighborhood in Jerusalem’s 2013 election.[15] Several neighborhoods gave pluralistic parties 80–90% support, while others gave ultra-Orthodox parties more than 85%.[15] In 2018, Jerusalem’s turnout was 40%, compared with 46% in Tel Aviv–Yafo and 49% in Haifa.[17] Within Jerusalem, participation was 1.6% in East Jerusalem neighborhoods and 57% in western neighborhoods.[17]

Women constituted 4.2% of locally elected representatives in 1950 and 3.1% in 1965.[8] The 1998 elections marked a milestone when Yael German of Meretz won the mayoralty of Herzliya and Myriam Feierberg of Likud won in Netanya, the first election in which women became mayors of two mid-size towns.[8] Women represented 10.9% of locally elected representatives that year, with differences between Jewish and Israeli-Palestinian communities.[8]

In the 191 municipalities and local councils voting in 2013, women accounted for approximately one-fifth of candidates for authority leadership or council membership: 3,557 women among 17,673 candidates, compared with 14,116 men.[1] Of the women candidates, 327 were elected, comprising 324 councillors and three authority heads; 2,093 men were elected.[1] Women held an average of 13.5% of council seats in this dataset, which excluded regional councils because their council-membership elections followed a different method.[1]

Arab women’s participation in 2013 included 165 Druze, Christian and Muslim candidates on lists in 44 Arab local authorities.[14] Two women headed council lists, while others occupied positions from second through fifth on additional lists.[14]

A 2014 amendment to election-financing legislation introduced an additional 15% funding incentive for factions whose candidate lists were at least one-third women, rather than imposing a statutory quota.[1] The 2018 elections were the first in which the amendment operated.[8] Women’s share of elected council membership rose from 13.5% in 2013 to 16.2% in 2018 in a published series that excludes regional councils.[8] The same series excluded Israeli-Palestinian councils before 2008, meaning its earlier percentages overstated women’s representation across the full range of local authorities.[8]

The 2024 candidate figures showed 83 women and 718 men seeking authority-head positions, making women approximately 10% of the 801 leadership candidates.[2] Council lists contained 6,349 women and 18,561 men, so women represented approximately 25% of 24,910 council candidates.[2] These figures describe candidacies rather than the composition of the elected councils.[2]

The 2018 election was the first in which elections for cities and local councils were held together with regional-council elections.[18] Voting took place in 251 of 257 local authorities, with 6,653,808 eligible voters, 863 authority-head candidates and approximately 3,400 council lists.[18] Approximately 11,000 polling stations operated at about 4,000 locations.[18] It was also the first local-election polling day designated a national day off.[19]

The next nationwide cycle was initially scheduled for October 31, 2023.[4] Following the outbreak of the Iron Swords War, it was postponed first to January 30, 2024, and then to February 27.[4] The further postponement followed a military assessment that 688 reservists standing as candidates in 144 authorities could not be released for the January date.[20] A report on the revised schedule counted 7,190,584 eligible voters nationally and noted that some reservists could not leave the fighting to vote in person.[21]

Elections proceeded on February 27 in 242 local authorities, while evacuated communities did not vote on that date.[22] Some evacuated authorities subsequently held elections in November 2024.[4] The wartime vote involved an unusually large special-ballot operation: an estimate placed double-envelope voting at approximately 400,000 ballots, compared with roughly 95,000 in a typical election.[23] Voting at hundreds of military polling stations began on February 20, one week before the main polling day.[23]

Initial national turnout was reported at 49.2%, excluding ballots cast outside ordinary polling stations, including military ballots.[13] After double-envelope ballots were counted, a later reported final figure was 53.8%.[24] The second round took place in 35 authorities, approximately 14% of local authorities and the lowest such proportion reported in 20 years.[24]

Before Jerusalem’s February 2024 election, the city had 690,707 eligible voters and 891 polling stations.[17] Its electorate had grown by 51,850 since the previous election.[17] Two candidates sought the mayoralty, while more than 200 candidates on 16 lists competed for 31 council places.[17]

The published mayoral results recorded 466,268 voters, 442,312 valid votes and 23,956 invalid votes.[25] Moshe Leon received 358,715 votes, or 81% of valid votes, while Yosef Havilio received 83,597, or 19%.[25] The council election recorded 466,432 voters, 459,042 valid votes and 7,390 invalid votes.[25] The results table described 32 council seats including the mayor, whereas the pre-election description counted 31 places contested by list candidates.[25][17]

By 1969, local elections had become a factor in the growth of territorially based politics and an early route into political participation for younger people, newcomers and immigrants from Afro-Asian countries or their children.[6] Local politics became more pragmatic and less ideological, giving municipal institutions a role beyond the administration of services.[6]

Direct mayoral elections intensified the personalization of local contests.[6] Prominent candidates could obtain more votes than their own lists and help less-known candidates gain office.[6] A scholarly account published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs argues that direct election could have given mayors considerable independence, but that mayors traditionally continued to organize coalitions according to council-seat distribution.[26]

Municipal success could also precede national political advancement.[5] Shas won three of Jerusalem’s 21 council seats in 1983, an early electoral success before it entered the Knesset with four seats in the 1984 national election.[5] Local elections thus provided an arena in which emerging political organizations could establish an electoral presence before achieving parliamentary representation.[5]

A longstanding boycott by most Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem has connected municipal participation to the political dispute over Israeli rule there since 1967.[27] Although eligible to vote, many residents have abstained to avoid appearing to legitimize that rule; other recorded reasons include solidarity with Palestinians outside Jerusalem, resistance, skepticism about municipal service provision and doubts about councillors’ influence over contentious national policies.[27] Published estimates of participation differ, but consistently depict exceptionally low turnout in recent elections.[27]

The political effects of direct leadership elections have also attracted differing assessments.[3] The reform has been linked to a weaker position for major parties, increased independent candidacies and local lists, and greater bargaining leverage for smaller groups when an elected mayor lacks a council majority.[3] Wartime scheduling in 2024 additionally raised questions about participation by serving reservists and residents of evacuated communities, reflected in repeated postponements and separate voting dates.[20][4]