The 2018 Tel Aviv mayoral election was held on 30 October 2018 to elect the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

. It saw the reelection of

Ron Huldai Ron Huldai ( he, רוֹן חוּלְדָּאִי; born 26 August 1944) is the current Mayor of Tel Aviv, since 1998. Before he entered his role as Tel Aviv mayor, Huldai served as a fighter pilot and a commander in the Israeli Air Force. After ...

to a fifth consecutive term. The election was part of the

2018 Israeli municipal elections Municipal elections were held in Israel on October 30, 2018. A run-off was held on November 13 in localities where a candidate for mayor received at least 40% of the vote. For the first time, the four local councils in Druze localities in the Go ...

Candidates

Ran

*Natan Elnatan (

Shas Shas ( he, ש״ס) is a Haredi religious political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 under the leadership of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardi chief rabbi, who remained its spiritual leader until his death in October 2013, it primarily ...

), deputy mayor *Assaf Harel (We Are the City), comedian *

(One Tel Aviv), incumbent mayor since 1998 *

Asaf Zamir Asaf Zamir ( he, אסף זמיר, born 31 August 1980) is an Israeli politician and diplomat. He served as Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv from 2008 until 2013 and Acting Mayor in charge of education from 2013 to 2018. He was elected to the Knesset in 2 ...

(City Majority), deputy mayor and founder and chairman of "City Majority"

Declined

Ofir Akunis Ofir Akunis ( he, אוֹפִיר אָקוּנִיס, born 28 May 1973) is an Israeli politician. He currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Likud and is the Minister of Science and Technology. He has previously held the posts of Mini ...

, member of the Knesset *

Tzipi Livni Tziporah Malka "Tzipi" Livni ( he, ציפי (ציפורה) מלכה לבני, ; born 8 July 1958) is an Israeli politician, diplomat, and lawyer. A former member of the Knesset and leader in the center-left political camp, Livni is a former fore ...

, Knesset

leader of the opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

, leader of

Hatnua Hatnua ( he, הַתְּנוּעָה, lit=''The Movement'') was a liberal political party in Israel formed by former Israeli Foreign Minister and Vice Prime Minister Tzipi Livni to present an alternative to voters frustrated by the stalemate in th ...

, former leader of

Kadima Kadima ( he, קדימה, lit=''Forward'') was a centrist and liberal political party in Israel. It was established on 24 November 2005 by moderates from Likud largely following the implementation of Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan ...

Stav Shaffir Stav Shaffir (; born 17 May 1985) is an Israeli politician. She is the leader of the Green Party and was a member of the Knesset for the Democratic Union alliance. She came to national prominence as one of the leaders of the 2011 Israeli social ...

, member of the

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

*Noam Tavon

Campaigning

A popular four-term incumbent, Ron Huldai had never before faced a serious reelection challenge. Lacking

name recognition In politics, name recognition is the ability a voter has to identify a candidate's name due to a certain amount of previous exposure through various campaigning methods. It can be described as the awareness voters have about specific candidates r ...

when he announced his candidacy, Asaf Zamir's prospects were initially considered a longshot. However, in the months after launching his campaign, Zamir saw his support rise. Before the election results came in, it was anticipated that he would at least force Huldai into a

runoff election The two-round system (TRS), also known as runoff voting, second ballot, or ballotage, is a voting method used to elect a single candidate, where voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidate. It generally ensures a majoritarian resul ...

. As of July, a poll by Walla News showed Zamir in third place with only 11% of the vote, behind Huldai and prospective candidate Stav Shaffir. However, after Shaffir's made clear she would not be a candidate in the election, Zamir gradually climbed in support, posing a credible challenge to Huldai. Some polling shortly before the election showed Huldai with only a single-digit lead over Zamir. Attacks on Zamir included accusations of

crony capitalism Crony capitalism, sometimes called cronyism, is an economic system in which businesses thrive not as a result of free enterprise, but rather as a return on money amassed through collusion between a business class and the political class. This is ...

related to his marriage to Maya Wertheimer, which made his grandfather-in-law

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

Stef Wertheimer. Stef Wertheimer personally funded part of Zamir's reelection campaign. Huldai and Zamir shared many similar political concerns, both advocating for lowering the price of housing, improvements to

public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

ation, and increasing the livability of the city. Zamir promised to address housing needs by building the city vertically, adding high-rise

apartment An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

s along busier roadways that can accommodate such buildings. He also proposed expanding the city center by renovating more distant neighborhoods in order to enable people to live further from the city's geographic core, without feeling removed from the city.

Polling

Results

The results in Tel Aviv, with 203,018 voters participating of 440,205 eligible, are as follows. Of the 203,018 votes, 194,451 were valid (marking 44.17% turnout). Since Huldai's share of the vote exceeded the 40% threshold required to avert a runoff election, no runoff was held. Huldai was seen as managing to both retain his strong support among the city's younger electorate, as well as retain a base of fervent supporters among a minority of the city's older residents.

References

{{reflist

2010s in Tel Aviv Mayoral elections in Tel Aviv