Secular candidate wins Jerusalem mayoral race

With nearly all of the results in, Israel's Channel 2 TV reported that just over 52 percent of the city's voters had supported Barkat. That tally was matched by the country's two other main television stations and the Web sites of all three major newspapers.

Barkat claimed victory before dawn. "I'm aware of the depth of the challenge and the complexity of the mission. Now is the time to work together for the good of the city," Barkat, a technology investor and former paratroops officer, told his supporters. He promised to be "everybody's mayor."

His opponent, ultra-Orthodox strongman Meir Porush, received just over 43 percent of the vote, according to Channel 2 and the Web site of Israel's largest newspaper, Yediot Ahronot.

Barkat will succeed Uri Lupolianski, the first ultra-Orthodox Jew to serve as mayor of Jerusalem.

Israelis went to voting stations 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.

Porush, 53, an imposing figure on the ultra-Orthodox national political scene for years, his trademark bushy red beard going gray now, ran an intense campaign against Barkat, a venture capitalist in his second try to win the mayor's job.

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