Though three months have passed since Nazareth's mayoral elections, controversy still reigns regarding the identity of the winner. To this very day, it is not clear who is and who will be the mayor. Residents of the city have never encountered such a situation. On the Oct. 22 election day, Ramez Jaraisi still served as the city’s long-standing mayor. A few days later, after the ballots were counted, Ali Salam was declared the winner — a man who had served as Jaraisi’s deputy for 15 years.

Two weeks later Salam went to the municipal building, entered the familiar chambers and took over the mayor’s chair that his colleague had vacated. However, the defeated mayor did not give up so easily. According to the official count, only 22 ballots separated Jaraisi from Salam, the victor. If 12 votes had gone the other way, Jaraisi would have continued on for his fifth term, another five years.

Jaraisi appealed to a local court, arguing that one envelope containing 47 ballot envelopes had not been opened and counted. According to the names of the voters, Jaraisi reckoned that most of them would have cast their votes for him. Salam opposed the opening of the envelope, and the issue reached the district court. The judges ruled to open the envelope, but Salam petitioned the Supreme Court to prevent this.

It emerged that the mysterious envelope was defective because the polling-station secretary forgot to sign it after counting the ballots and inserting them. When the envelope reached its final destination and was opened, someone noticed that the signature was missing; the chairman of the election committee ordered its disqualification.