Last time Bet Shemesh held the the title of most interesting, and confounding, municipal elections. This time around Elad has taken the title and continues to hold onto it dearly.

After the last minute attempt to throw in a strong candidate against the incumbent mayor, Yitzchak Pindros was invalidated from running. After challenging the decision in the Supreme Curt, the decision was upheld.

Now Degel and Shas have arranged a petition to be signed by a significant number of residents requesting the elections be delayed in Elad because a candidate supported by a majority of residents isn't being allowed to run and the election would be considered unfair.

The Minister of the Interior, in this case Aryeh Deri from Shas, has the legal right to put a hold on elections in extreme cases. It should be noted that the only time this happened previously was during the Yom Kippur War.

With the conflict of interest being obvious, the decision on this matter was taken out of the hands of Deri and transferred to Tzachi Hanegbi.

Whatever happens happens, whatever they decide they decide. It is just great that Elad (especially so because it is not Bet Shemesh this time) keeps supplying us with such great headlines and news.

Besides for all the crazy activity itself, the petition amuses me a bit:
1. The petition claims a majority of residents want a candidate that is not being allowed to run. What the majority wants really remains to be seen in the elections.
2. The fact that this candidate did not fulfill all the requirements of declaring candidacy invalidated him, so it should not matter how many people want him. There are rules and requirements for declaring candidacy and one cannot just claim everyone wants me so let me run.
3. The specific candidate was moved to Elad by party leadership at the last minute so he could file for candidacy. This is not a candidate desired by the majority of residents, but by party leadership. He was not even capable of running until 5 minutes before he field for candidacy, so it is not like the residents of Elad have been dreaming of this mayor for years. The party leadership sent him there just because they do not like the other candidate and thought they could take over the city leadership through him. While there isn't really anything wrong with that on its own (though personally I don't like it), it is far from the claim of "the majority of residents want him".

Keep it going Elad. Find new ways to entertain us.