A billionaire Russian-born oligarch, wanted by Interpol on arms trafficking charges, whose son owns Portsmouth Football Club; an ultra-Orthodox zealot whose campaign posters portray him as a cuddly bearded gnome; and a secular software tycoon who wants to transform Jerusalem’s edgy streets into a tourism and bio-tech boom town.

From this exotic array of candidates Jerusalemites set out yesterday to elect a new mayor for a city as deeply divided between Jews and Arabs as between secularist and God-fearing Israelis.

In what was expected to be a tight race, the centre-right secularist Nir Barkat was tipped to emerge as the new mayor of the city, a place claimed by Israelis and Palestinians as their eternal capital. But he could be pipped at the post by the whitebearded rabbi Meir Porush.

Trailing behind them is the controversial right-winger Arkadi Gaydamak, a billionaire Russian-born French-Angolan citizen who cannot return to Paris because of a warrant for his arrest on accusations of arms dealing in the so-called Angolagate scandal.

The battle is seen as a barometer for the city’s soul, with the ultra-Orthodox community – who elected the current Mayor, Uri Lupoliansky, five years ago hoping to stamp their religious print on Jerusalem.

Mr Porush, a 54-year-old MP from the United Torah Judaism party, told his constituents recently that secularism was on the wane in the Jewish state. “In another 15 years there will not be a secular mayor in any city in Israel, [except] perhaps in some far-flung village,” he promised.

Mr Barkat, a 49-year-old former paratroop commander, was hoping to tap into fears that an increasingly religious community would suffocate growth and spark a brain-drain, as younger would-be entrepreneurs flee for the secular seaside metropolis of Tel Aviv.

The joker in the pack is Mr Gaydamak, who was born in Moscow and moved briefly to Israel as a young man before relocating to France, where he won a Légion d’honneur for securing the release of two French pilots held by the Bosnian Serb Government in the 1990s war. He later fled to Israel after Interpol issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with the arms smuggling imbroglio.

Pundits see it as unlikely that Mr Gaydamak, who has failed to master Hebrew, could secure the post of mayor, which was held by the outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert before Mr Lupoliansky.

About a third of the city’s population are Arab and are not expected to vote, having long boycotted municipal elections to avoid any normalisation of the east of the city captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War as part of the Israeli system.

The mayoral race was part of nationwide municipal elections, including in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Despite their differences, one thing unites the candidates their determination not to allow the city to be divided with the Palestinians, as has been discussed by Tzipi Livni, the Foreign Minister running for prime minister in early elections next year. The staunch opposition of the leading candidates bodes poorly for Ms Livni. She faces a tough race from the right-wing Likud party, whose hawkish leader Binyamin Netanyahu has ruled out any division of the city.

Rivals to run Jerusalem

Arkadi Gaydamak, 56
Moscow-born oligarch and owner of Beitar football club, whose son owns Portsmouth FC. With an estimated wealth of $8 billion, he has bought his way into politics He is wanted by Interpol of charges of arms trafficking

Nir Barkat, 49
Jerusalem-raised former paratroop commander who made a fortune developing computer antivirus software. A secularist, he narrowly lost to the ultra-Orthodox incumbent Uri Lupoliansky when he ran for mayor in 2003

Meir Porush, 54
An ultra-Orthodox rabbi who comes from a well-known religious family, he is currently a member of the Knesset for the United Torah Judaism party. He built his political career on a strictly haredi ultra-Orthodox agenda.

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