The secretariat of the Jerusalem branch of the Agudas Yisrael will convene Tuesday, 12 Menachem Av for a special meeting to discuss preparations for the upcoming Jerusalem municipal elections, which will be held in another three and a half months. It is expected that the official body will give the green light for Deputy Mayor Yossi Deutsch to run for mayor.

This is the last hurdle before Deutsch’s officially announces his candidacy in the race.

If approved to run as expected, Deutsch will obviously expect to receive the votes of the chassidish factions, hoping as well to become the candidate of the litvish Degel Hatorah faction and Shas as well. One would assume that the chareidim will support the only chareidi candidate in the race.

His candidacy will all but ensure that Ze’ev Elkin or Moshe Leon will not receive the chareidi votes, however, this is yet to be determined since the last time a chareidi ran for mayor in the city, the chareidim were split.

Due to the strong opposition by Yaakov Litzman, who would not back his political nemesis, Meir Porush, the chassidim did not back Porush in the race and Nir Barkat was elected due to the split in the chareidi camp, now completing his second and last term in office as he announced he will not be seeking reelection.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)