JERUSALEM, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Right-wing candidate won a tight race for Jerusalem Mayor, Israel's official Central Elections Committee said on Wednesday morning.
Moshe Lion, a businessman supported by right-wing and Jewish ultra-Orthodox parties, won the elections, defeating his rival, a 35-year-old secular activist Ofer Berkovitch.
Residents of Jerusalem, a diverse city torn between Israelis and Palestinians, cast their ballots on Tuesday.
Initial results suggested Berkovitch has won. But the race was concluded with a dramatic shift on Wednesday early morning as more votes were counted, showing Lion won with some 52 percent of the votes, which represent some 6,526 individual votes.
"Jerusalem chose unity, the sense of togetherness, the good," Lion told a crowd of supporters, mainly ultra-Orthodox men, while declaring his victory.
"I intend to be the mayor of all of Jerusalem's residents, whoever they may be. Those that voted for me, and those that didn't," Lion said.
Israeli Interior Minister Arye Deri, leader of the ultra-Orthodox party of Shas which supported Lion in the recent race, posted a video on his Twitter account, congratulating Lion for his victory.
"I congratulated my friend, Moshe Lion, the elected mayor of the Jerusalem municipality," he said.
Lion is also a close associate of Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's defense minister and leader of "Israel Our Home" party, which supported Lion in the race.
Lion, 57, is an accountant, a veteran political activist, and a former director of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office. He currently sits in the Jerusalem Municipality Council as part of the incumbent Mayor Nir Barkat's coalition.
Berkovitch has rejected his defeat, saying some 8,500 votes of soldiers and prisoners have yet to be counted. He also suggested that breaches were made in some of the ballots and vowed to his supporters that his legal team will work to re-check suspected ballots.
