Nazareth Mayor a Communist

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34022, 11 December 1975, Page 17

Nazareth Mayor a Communist

(N.Z.P.A.Reuter—Copyright) NAZARETH, Dec, 10.

A Communist, Mr Tawfik Zayyad, and his Democratic Front, won a sweeping victory in municipal elections in Nazareth, it was announced today. Final returns after an overnight count showed that the 46-year-old Marxist member of Parliament won 65 per cent of the votes in the country’s first direct Mayoral election.

His supporters in the Democratic Front, composed of the Rakah (New Communist) Party and an intellectual group of lawyers and businessmen, also swept into power in the parallel elections for the council, winning ?? of the 17 seats. The others were shared by the Labour Party (4), and National Religious Party (2).

Israeli authorities were understood to fear the wider political impact of a Communist Mayor in Nazareth, Israel’s largest Arab town and regarded as a touchstone

of Arab opinion in the country.

Two Government Ministers even said recently that economic aid to the town might be cut off if Mr Zayyad won. Mr Zayyad shocked many Israelis after the October war by writing a poem extolling the Egyptian Army’s crossing of the Suez Canal. Many of his young supporters make no secret of their sympathy with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (P.L.0.), which Israel condemns as a terrorist body. During the election campaign, Mr Zayyad said that, as a result of past policies, the city lacked adequate educational and social services as enjoyed by Israeli-domin-ated towns.